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FEB  14  1924 


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Musical 


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ONE  HUNDRED  AND 
ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


By 

CARL  F.  PRICE 


.•*-  lQV  1 1  k  P  B )  LJ 
‘  *  1  1 

/  V'  ^ 


WXBir&tocViBJ 


THE  ABINGDON  PRESS 


NEW  YORK 


CINCINNATI 


Copyright,  1923,  by 
CARL  F.  PRICE 


All  rights  reserved,  including  that  of  translation  into 
foreign  languages,  including  the  Scandinavian 


Printed  in  the  United  States  of  America 


TO  MISS  EMILY  S.  PERKINS 
WRITER  OF  CHRISTIAN  HYMNS, 
COMPOSER  OF  HYMN  TUNES,  AND 
FOUNDER  OF  THE  HYMN  SOCIETY 


Digitized  by  the  Internet  Archive 
in  2019  with  funding  from 
Princeton  Theological  Seminary  Library 


https://archive.org/details/onehundredonehymOOpric 


PREFACE 


Every  real  hymn  has  its  story,  if  only  we  could 
discover  it.  The  background  of  the  author’s  life, 
his  spiritual  experiences,  his  conflicts,  his  sufferings, 
his  victories,  sometimes  a  startling  incident,  some¬ 
times  a  soul  crisis,  sometimes  a  season  of  exaltation 
— these  things  are  woven  into  the  thought  and  feel¬ 
ing  of  a  great  hymn.  And  perhaps,  in  some  meas¬ 
ure,  the  fact  that  these  hymns  have  been  wrought 
out  of  actual  human  experience  gives  to  them  the 
great  power  which  they  undoubtedly  exert  upon  the 
hearts  of  men.  Certainly,  to  know  what  conditions 
produced  a  given  hymn  often  adds  to  our  apprecia¬ 
tion  of  its  meaning  and  our  responsiveness  to  its 
message. 

Of  the  real  origin  of  many  of  the  best  hymns  we 
know  little  or  nothing.  Their  story  is  enshrouded 
in  mystery.  Of  some  hymns,  as  the  stirring  mis¬ 
sionary  hymn,  “Soon  May  the  Last  Glad  Song 
Arise,”  hymnology  has  been  unable  to  disclose  even 
the  author.  “Mrs.  Vokes”  is  the  name  attached  to 
this  hymn ;  but  who  knows  who  she  was,  or  even 
what  was  her  full  name? 

Of  other  hymns,  however,  much  has  been  brought 
to  light  by  patient  students  of  hymnology.  Some 
authors  have  quite  fully  taken  us  into  their  confi¬ 
dence  as  to  the  origin  of  their  hymns,  while  concern¬ 
ing  others  much  has  been  gleaned  from  contem¬ 
porary  sources. 

It  is  the  purpose  of  this  book  to  present  in  com¬ 
pact  form  some  of  the  most  effective  stories  of  well¬ 
loved  hymns,  so  that  without  wading  through  volu¬ 
minous  works  on  hymnology  the  general  reader,  and 
especially  the  pastor,  Sunday-school  superintendent, 
and  other  leaders  of  worship,  may  have  them  in 

5 


PREFACE 

easily  accessible  form.  Some  of  the  stories  are  here 
presented  for  the  first  time.  Still  more  of  them 
have  been  drawn  from  the  recognized  sources  of 
English  hymnology  and  have  been  retold  in  brief 
form. 

The  book  owes  its  origin  to  a  meeting  in  the 
winter  of  1923  of  the  New  York  Sunday  School 
Superintendents’  Association,  representing  many 
denominations,  when  the  use  of  hymn  stories  was 
discussed  as  a  means  of  arousing  greater  interest  in 
the  message  of  the  hymns  and  as  an  antidote  to 
thoughtless,  mechanical  singing,  so  prevalent  in 
Sunday  schools  and  even  in  church  worship.  A 
number  of  superintendents  testified  to  the  great  help 
they  had  found  in  the  use  of  the  author’s  previous 
book,  A  Year  of  Hymn  Stories,  now  out  of  print. 
And  an  appeal  was  made  to  him  to  double  the  num¬ 
ber  of  stories  in  that  book  and  reissue  the  whole 
collection  in  convenient  form.  This  has  been  done. 
And  it  is  our  devout  hope  that  this  primer  of  hym¬ 
nology  may  help  stimulate  more  intelligent  and  more 
worshipful  use  of  the  hymns  which  are  such  a 
precious  heritage  of  the  church. 

Carl  F.  Price. 

New  York,  August  29,  1923. 


6 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


1.  St?p  JfaitS  Eoo Hip  to 

Ray  Palmer,  1808-1887 

Many  of  the  best  Christian  hymns  were  penned 
by  very  young  men.  Ray  Palmer,  son  of  Judge 
Thomas  Palmer  of  Rhode  Island,  started  life  as  a 
dry-goods  clerk  in  Boston;  but  after  three  years  of 
preparation  at  Phillips  Academy,  Andover,  he 
entered  Yale  College  and  graduated  in  1830.  He 
began  teaching  at  once  in  New  York  city,  and  that 
year,  though  only  twenty-two  years  of  age,  he  wrote 
this  hymn,  which  has  been  sung  for  nearly  a  cen¬ 
tury  to  the  blessing  of  thousands  of  worshipers. 

That  year  was  one  of  deep  discouragement,  for 
it  brought  to  him  a  fearful  battle  against  illness  and 
poverty.  But  his  faith  looked  up  to  Christ  to 
strengthen  his  “fainting  heart,”  and  while  he  was 
treading  “life’s  dark  maze,”  he  sang: 

Bid  darkness  turn  to  day, 

Wipe  sorrow’s  tears  away, 

Nor  let  me  ever  stray 
From  Thee  aside. 

In  recounting  his  experiences  which  inspired  the 
hymn  he  afterward  wrote:  “I  gave  form  to  what 
I  felt  by  writing,  with  little  effort,  these  stanzas.  I 
recollect  I  wrote  them  with  very  tender  emotion,  and 
ended  the  last  line  with  tears.  I  composed  them 
with  a  deep  consciousness  of  my  own  needs,  without 
the  slightest  thought  of  writing  for  another  eye,  and 
least  of  all  of  writing  a  hymn  for  Christian  worship.” 

His  faith  conquered,  and  his  life  was  greatly 
blessed  in  wide  Christian  service  as  pastor  of  Con¬ 
gregational  churches  in  Bath,  Maine,  and  Albany, 
New  York;  and  still  later  as  corresponding  secre¬ 
tary  of  the  American  Congregational  Union. 


7 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


2.  peace*  perfect  peace 

Bishop  Edward  Henry  Bickersteth,  1825-1906 

Ten  years  before  Doctor  Bickersteth  was  made 
Bishop  of  Exeter  he  was  spending  the  summer  of 
1875  at  Harrogate,  in  a  house  loaned  to  him  by  the 
Vicar  of  Casterton.  His  son  states  that  one  August 
Sunday  morning  he  heard  Canon  Gibbon,  who  was 
then  Vicar  of  Harrogate,  preach  from  the  text, 
“Thou  wilt  keep  him  in  perfect  peace,  whose  mind 
is  stayed  on  Thee.”  An  allusion  was  made  in  the 
sermon  to  the  original  Hebrew  words  of  the  text 
which  were,  “Peace,  peace,”  once  repeated:  the  1611 
translation  happily  rendered  these  words,  “Perfect 
peace.”  This  fired  Doctor  Bickersteth’s  imagination 
and  set  him  to  thinking  upon  this  subject. 

That  afternoon  he  called  on  Archdeacon  Hill, 
of  Liverpool,  who  was  approaching  death,  and  he 
found  the  Archdeacon  troubled  in  mind.  Eager  to 
share  his  thoughts  upon  peace  with  the  dying  saint, 
and  believing  he  could  best  give  to  him  real  comfort 
in  the  form  of  verse,  he  took  up  a  sheet  of  paper  and 
wrote  this  hymn  exactly  as  it  is  used  to-day,  and  then 
read  it  to  him. 

The  hymn  with  its  questions,  each  expressive  of 
some  one  of  life’s  difficulties,  and  its  answers,  each 
coupling  the  name  of  Jesus  with  some  precious 
thought  of  comfort,  has  often  been  used  in  times  of 
intense  sorrow.  But  the  Rev.  S.  Bickersteth,  son 
of  the  author,  tells  us :  “The  most  touching  occasion 
on  which,  personally,  I  ever  heard  it  sung  was  round 
the  grave  of  my  eldest  brother,  Bishop  Edward 
Bickersteth  (of  South  Tokyo)  at  Chiselden  in  1897, 
when  my  father  was  chief  mourner.” 


8 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


3.  flfiljjm  Ct 000  1 8*  Ctoto&eb  ot  Hitt 

Frank  Mason  North,  1850- 

WHILE  Professor  Caleb  T.  Winchester,  of  Wes¬ 
leyan  University,  was  helping  the  Hymnal  Commis¬ 
sion  prepare  The  Methodist  Hymnal  of  1905,  he 
met  Doctor  North  in  the  Methodist  Book  Concern 
building,  New  York  city,  one  day  in  1903  and  said: 
“Why  don’t  you  write  for  us  a  missionary  hymn? 
We  need  more  hymns  on  that  subject  in  our 
hymnal.”  Doctor  North  disclaimed  any  ability  to 
write  a  hymn  worthy  of  that  book;  but  Professor 
Winchester,  being  familiar  with  some  of  his  poems, 
insisted,  and  Doctor  North  promised  to  try. 

Shortly  before  this  Doctor  North  had  preached  a 
sermon  on  Matthew  22.  9,  “Go  ye  therefore  into 
the  highways” ;  and  being  especially  impressed  by 
the  rendering  in  the  Revised  Version  of  the  words, 
diei-odovg  t&v  ddcov ,  “the  partings  of  the  highways,” 
he  described  the  appealing  challenge  made  by  the 
crowds  of  people  thronging  such  places  as  Union 
Square  and  Rutgers  Square  in  New  York  and  simi¬ 
lar  squares  in  European  cities  where  with  a  yearn¬ 
ing  heart  he  had  watched  the  people  come  and  go. 
This  suggested  a  first  line  for  his  hymn, 

Where  cross  the  crowded  ways  of  life. 

The  picture  of  Christ,  returning  from  the  Mount  of 
Transfiguration  and  healing  a  young  man,  inspired 
the  lines, 

O  Master  from  the  mountain  side, 

Make  haste  to  heal  these  hearts  of  pain. 

His  special  interest ,  in  social  questions  and  his 
years  (1892-1912)  as  secretary  of  the  city  mission¬ 
ary  work  of  New  York  Methodism  (from  which  he 
entered  the  foreign  missionary  secretaryship)  find 
eloquent  expression  in  this  hymn,  which  appears  in 
more  standard  hymnals  than  any  other  hymn  of 
this  century.  It  was  first  published  in  1903. 

9 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


4.  fetocct  tj)e  foments,  Eticf)  tn  23  legging 

Walter  Shirley,  1725-1786 

In  its  present  form  this  hymn  was  wrought  out 
of  a  bitter  experience  in  the  life  of  Sir  Walter  Shir¬ 
ley,  who  was  at  the  time  Rector  of  Loughgrea  in 
the  County  of  Galway,  Ireland.  His  brother,  the 
Earl  of  Ferrars,  a  man  of  evil  habits,  engaged  in 
a  quarrel  with  one  of  his  servants,  who  had  long 
been  in  his  employ,  and  in  the  passion  of  his  anger 
he  murdered  the  old  man.  He  was  at  once  impris¬ 
oned;  and  Shirley,  though  mortified  by  the  terrible 
disgrace  which  the  revolting  crime  had  brought  upon 
his  family,  journeyed  to  his  brother’s  prison  and 
remained  near  him  during  the  distressing  weeks  that 
followed.  The  Earl  was  tried,  convicted,  and  sen¬ 
tenced  to  be  hanged  at  Tyburn.  After  the  execution 
Shirley,  worn  out  by  his  long  vigil  and  humiliated  in 
spirit,  returning  to  his  parish,  finding  comfort  only 
in  the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ. 

Discovering  an  imperfect  expression  of  his  emo¬ 
tions  at  that  time  in  a  hymn,  “O  How  Happy  Are 
the  Moments,”  by  the  Rev.  James  Allen,  he  adapted 
and  revised  the  hymn  so  completely  that  it  became 
practically  a  new  composition,  truly  poetic  in  lan¬ 
guage  and  form,  and  tenderly  eloquent  of  his  own 
experience : 

Sweet  the  moments,  rich  in  blessing, 

Which  before  the  cross  I  spend ; 

Life  and  health  and  peace  possessing 
From  the  sinner’s  dying  Friend. 

Walter  Shirley  was  a  cousin  of  the  famous 
Countess  of  Huntingdon,  a  devout  woman  who 
engaged  in  the  preparation  of  many  hymn  books,  in 
one  of  which  this  hymn  first  appeared. 


IO 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


5.  t&e  Poite  ot  HeiSus  Calling 

Daniel  March,  1816-1909 

After  his  graduation  from  Yale  in  1840,  Daniel 
March  studied  for  the  ministry  and  in  1845  received 
ordination  from  the  Presbyterian  Church.  Still  later 
he  entered  the  ministry  of  the  Congregational 
Church,  in  which  he  was  serving  in  Philadelphia  at 
the  time  when  this  hymn  was  written — the  only  one 
by  which  he  is  known  as  a  hymn-writer.  He  was 
announced  to  preach  before  the  Christian  Associa¬ 
tion  in  Philadelphia ;  but  not  long  before  the  service 
he  discovered  that  the  hymn  chosen  to  follow  the 
sermon  did  not  fit  the  sentiment  of  his  discourse. 
He  had  selected  as  his  text  Isaiah  6.  8 :  “Also  I  heard 
the  voice  of  the  Lord,  saying,  Whom  shall  I  send, 
and  who  will  go  for  us?  Then  said  I,  Here  am  I; 
send  me.” 

Full  of  his  subject  he  wrote  the  four  eight-line 
verses  of  the  hymn  beginning  with  the  lines, 

Hark,  the  voice  of  Jesus  crying, 

“Who  will  go  and  work  to-day.” 

The  last  line  re-echoes  the  thought  in  the  latter  part 
of  the  text : 

Who  will  answer,  gladly  saying, 

“Here  am  I,  send  me,  send  me.” 

The  hymn  was  sung  at  his  service  from  the  manu¬ 
script,  and  formed  a  fitting  climax  to  the  thought  of 
the  sermon  in  much  the  same  manner  as  George 
Duffield,  Jr.,  used  as  a  climax  for  a  sermon  his 
hymn,  “Stand  Up,  Stand  Up  for  Jesus”  ( q .  v.). 

The  second  verse  seems  to  be  modeled  after  a 
hymn,  popular  in  that  day,  by  Mrs.  Ellen  Hunting- 
ton  Gates,  “Your  Mission,”  which  was  an  especial 
favorite  of  President  Lincoln’s,  as  sung  during  the 
Civil  War  by  Philip  Phillips,  its  first  line  being  “If 
you  cannot  on  the  ocean.” 

II 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


6*  3  Hobt  to  feiteal  fttoap 

Phebe  Hinsdale  Brown,  1783-1861 

Phebe  Hinsdale,  the  daughter  of  the  composer 
of  the  psalm-tune,  “Hinsdale,’’  was  left  an  orphan 
at  the  age  of  two.  A  relative,  keeper  of  the  county 
jail,  brought  her  up  amid  drudgery  and  cruel  hard¬ 
ship,  so  that  she  was  robbed  of  a  happy  childhood 
and  never  even  learned  to  read  until  she  was 
eighteen.  During  three  months’  school  at  Claverack, 
New  York,  she  gave  her  heart  to  the  Lord  and  joined 
the  Congregational  Church. 

Later  she  married  a  house-painter,  Timothy  LI. 
Brown,  and  settled  in  East  Windsor,  afterward 
moving  to  Ellington,  Connecticut.  Here  they  lived 
very  humbly  in  a  small,  unfinished  house,  and  with 
her  four  children  to  care  for  and  a  sick  sister  in  the 
only  room  that  was  finished,  there  was  no  place  about 
the  house  where  she  could  be  alone  for  devout  medi¬ 
tation  and  restful  quiet. 

Therefore  at  twilight  she  would  frequently  slip 
away  from  home  and  walk  alone  along  the  road  as 
far  as  the  garden  of  the  next  house,  where  the  frag¬ 
rance  of  the  flowers  and  the  beauty  of  the  sunset 
hour  gave  her  opportunity  for  meditation  and  com¬ 
munion  with  God.  But  her  neighbors  wondered,  and 
gossipers  talked,  and  the  woman  who  owned  the 
garden  once  asked  her  somewhat  haughtily  :  “Mrs. 
Brown,  why  do  you  come  up  at  evening  so  near  our 
house  and  then  go  back  without  coming  in?  If  you 
want  anything,  why  don’t  you  come  in  and  ask  for 
it?” 

That  night,  with  all  the  children  abed,  save  the 
baby  in  her  arms,  she  burst  into  tears.  Taking  a 
pen,  she  wrote  in  verse,  “An  Apology  for  My  Twi¬ 
light  Rambles,  Addressed  to  a  Lady,”  from  which 
the  verses  of  this  hymn  are  taken. 


12 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


7 ♦  ptatge  to  tfjt  ^olte^t  tn  tfje  ^etgDt 

John  Henry  Newman,  1801-1890 

“The  Dream  of  Gerontius,”  by  Cardinal  New¬ 
man,  like  Tennyson’s  “In  Memoriam,”  Milton’s 
“Lycidas,”  and  many  another  poem  of  power,  was 
the  expression  of  the  author’s  emotions  and  medita¬ 
tions  upon  the  death  of  a  dear  friend.  It  pictures 
the  quest  of  the  soul  of  a  monk  in  his  journey  after 
death  toward  Purgatory.  As  finally  the  wandering- 
spirit  is  brought  into  the  presence  of  Emmanuel,  a 
choir  of  angels  is  represented  as  singing  this  hymn, 

Praise  to  the  Holiest  in  the  height, 

And  in  the  depths  be  praise, 

In  all  His  words  most  wonderful, 

Most  sure  in  all  his  ways. 

The  author  was  not  pleased  with  the  poem  when 
completed,  and  threw  it  away,  hut  a  friend  of  his 
rescued  it,  and  in  1865  it  was  published  in  The 
Month,  in  the  issues  of  May  and  June,  and  met  with 
such  immediate  favor  that  it  was  included  in  the 
author’s  Verses  on  Various  Occasions  in  1868. 

Subsequently  it  was  given  a  wonderful  musical 
setting  in  the  oratorio,  Dream  of  Gerontius,  by  the 
distinguished  English  composer,  Elgar. 

When  William  Ewart  Gladstone,  England’s 
“Grand  Old  Man,”  lay  dying  in  his  home,  he  fre¬ 
quently  quoted  this  hymn,  finding  in  its  noble  senti¬ 
ments  a  comforting  solace  in  his  last  days.  Canon 
Scott  Holland  in  preaching  at  Saint  Paul’s  Cathedral 
pictured  the  dying  prime  minister  as  “spending  his 
life  in  benediction  to  those  whom  he  leaves  behind  in 
this  world  and  in  thanksgiving  to  God,  to  whom  he 
rehearses  over  and  over  again,  day  after  day,  New¬ 
man’s  hymn  of  austere  and  splendid  adoration, 
‘Praise  to  the  Holiest  in  the  height.’  ”  The  hymn 
was  sung  at  Gladstone’s  funeral. 

13 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


8.  i?oto  ate  'Ef)P  &etbants>  Blest,  flD  Eota 

Joseph  Addison,  1672-1719 

Many  hymns  have  been  composed  by  travelers, 
the  thought  of  which  has  been  suggested  by  the 
scenes  and  experiences  of  travel.  Such  hymns  are, 
“Lead,  Kindly  Light,”  “Sow  in  the  Morn  Thy  Seed,” 
and  “O  Little  Town  of  Bethlehem”  ( q .  v.).  To 
this  class  of  hymns  belongs  “How  Are  Thy  Servants 
Blest,  O  Lord,”  written  by  the  famous  English  essay¬ 
ist,  Joseph  Addison. 

Lord  Macaulay,  in  the  Edinburgh  Review ,  July, 
1843,  recounted  this  incident  which  occurred  to 
Addison  in  the  midst  of  his  travels  on  the  Continent, 
which  extended  from  1699  to  1702: 

“In  December,  1700,  he  embarked  at  Marseilles. 
As  he  glided  along  the  Ligurian  coast  he  was 
delighted  by  the  sight  of  myrtles  and  olive  trees 
which  retained  their  verdure  under  the  winter  sol¬ 
stice.  Soon,  however,  he  encountered  one  of  the 
black  storms  of  the  Mediterranean.  The  captain  of 
the  ship  gave  up  all  for  lost,  and  confessed  himself 
to  a  Capuchin  who  happened  to  be  on  board.  The 
English  heretic,  in  the  meantime,  fortified  himself 
against  the  terrors  of  death  with  devotions  of  a  dif¬ 
ferent  kind.  How  strong  an  impression  this  perilous 
voyage  made  on  him  appears  from  the  ode,  ‘How 
Are  Thy  Servants  Blest,  O  Lord!’  which  was  long 
after  published  in  The  Spectator.” 

The  influence  upon  English  literature  of  this 
paper,  The  Spectator,  to  which  Addison  regularly 
contributed  his  charmingly  written  essays,  is  immeas¬ 
urable.  On  Saturday,  September  20,  1712,  in  No. 
489  of  that  periodical  there  appeared  an  essay  on 
“Greatness,”  which  dwelt  especially  on  the  greatness 
of  the  ocean  and  the  fondness  of  great  painters  for 
sea  pieces,  and  concluded  with  these  lines,  now  popu¬ 
larly  known  as  “The  Traveler’s  Hymn.” 


14 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


9.  SDtptf)  of  Can  ©e 

Charles  Wesley,  1707-1788 

“Depth  of  Mercy!”  which  was  first  published  in 
1740,  originally  contained  thirteen  verses,  and  was 
entitled  “After  a  Relapse  Into  Sin.” 

Doctor  Belcher,  in  his  Historical  Notes  on  Hymns 
and  Authors,  tells  the  story  of  an  actress  who  was 
in  a  country  town  when  she  heard  a  group  of  humble 
people  in  a  cottage  singing  this  hymn.  She  entered 
and  found  a  service  in  progress  which  she  followed 
with  the  deepest  emotion.  After  she  had  departed 
the  tender  words  of  Charles  Wesley’s  hymn  haunted 
her  and  at  last  she  secured  a  copy  of  the  hymn  book. 
Over  and  over  she  read  the  words  with  their  win¬ 
some  picture  of  Jesus  Christ,  wounded  for  her  trans¬ 
gressions,  weeping  for  her  waywardness,  but  still 
loving  with  an  infinite  love.  And  thus  she  was  led 
to  surrender  to  Him. 

Her  conscience  troubled  her  about  continuing  her 
work  on  the  stage,  but  the  manager  of  the  theater 
with  plausible  arguments  induced  her  to  go  on  with 
the  leading  part  in  a  new  play  soon  to  be  produced, 
and  she  appeared  on  the  opening  night.  Her 
entrance  on  the  stage  was  to  have  been  accompanied 
by  her  singing  of  a  song  in  the  play.  But  the  song 
she  could  not  sing,  for  she  was  thinking  of  her  recent 
conversion  and  of  the  hymn  which  had  brought  her 
to  Christ.  Finally,  clasping  her  hands  and  with 
tears  in  her  eyes,  she  sang  to  the  audience : 

Depth  of  mercy!  can  there  be 

Mercy  still  reserved  for  me? 


15 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


10.  flD  Hittle  UToton  of  ffietliUljm 

Phillips  Brooks,  1835-1893 

When  Phillips  Brooks  was  rector  of  Holy  Trin¬ 
ity,  Philadelphia,  his  parishioners  in  August,  1865, 
sent  him  abroad  for  a  year.  His  travels  took  him 
through  Europe,  and  in  December  to  the  Holy  Land. 
Here  with  reverent  feet  he  traced  the  footsteps  of 
his  Lord  and  Master  from  Nazareth  southward  and 
visited  the  scenes  of  the  Bible  narrative. 

After  two  weeks  spent  in  Jerusalem,  Christmas 
Eve  found  him  in  “the  little  town  of  Bethlehem” 
at  the  birthplace  of  Jesus.  Of  his  stirring  emotions 
on  that  ‘‘Holy  Night”  he  later  wrote  to  his  Sunday 
school  back  in  Philadelphia : 

“I  remember  especially  on  Christmas  Eve,  when 
I  was  standing  in  the  old  church  at  Bethlehem,  close 
to  the  spot  where  Jesus  was  born,  when  the  whole 
church  was  ringing  hour  after  hour  with  the  splen¬ 
did  hymns  of  praise  to  God,  how  again  and  again  it 
seemed  as  if  I  could  hear  voices  that  I  knew  well,  tell¬ 
ing  each  other  of  the  ‘Wonderful  Night’  of  the  Sav¬ 
iour’s  birth,  as  I  had  heard  the  year  before ;  and  I 
assure  you  I  was  glad  to  shut  my  ears  for  a  while 
and  listen  to  the  more  familiar  strains  that  came 
wandering  to  me  halfway  round  the  world.” 

Two  years  after  his  return  to  America,  still  full 
of  the  thrilling  memories  of  Bethlehem,  Phillips 
Brooks  wrote  for  his  Sunday  school  the  Christmas 
hymn,  “O  Little  Town  of  Bethlehem,”  which  for  a 
long  time  had  been  singing  in  his  soul.  In  this  he 
has  embodied,  as  in  the  prose  descriptions  of  places 
visited  in  the  Holy  Land,  the  spiritual  meaning  of 
what  he  there  saw.  An  Easter  hymn  also  by  Bishop 
Brooks,  “God  Hath  Sent  His  Angels,”  refers  to 
other  scenes  in  Palestine  which  he  visited. 


16 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


U.  anotljet  grar  30  ©atoning* 

Frances  Ridley  Havergal,  1836-1879 

Miss  Havergal,  who  wrote  the  famous  New 
Year’s  hymn, 

Another  year  is  dawning! 

Dear  Master,  let  it  be 

In  working  or  in  waiting 
Another  year  with  Thee, 

spent  her  life  “in  working  and  in  waiting”  for  the 
Master.  In  August,  1850,  before  she  was  fourteen 
years  old,  she  entered  Miss  Teed’s  school,  where  the 
influences  over  her  were  very  helpful.  The  follow¬ 
ing  year,  she  says,  “I  committed  my  soul  to  the  Sav¬ 
iour,  and  earth  and  heaven  seemed  brighter  from 
that  moment.”  She  earnestly  strove  to  make  each 
year  after  that  hallowed  experience 

Another  year  of  service, 

Of  witness  for  Thy  love. 

Wherever  she  went  in  her  frequent  travels  she 
was  constantly  asking  people  whether  or  not  they 
knew  of  the  joys  of  salvation,  and  by  thus  being  a 
witness  she  led  hundreds  of  souls  to  the  cross. 

Another  year  of  training 
For  holier  work  above. 

Her  heart  was  fixed  upon  the  more  glorious  work, 
which  God  has  prepared  for  us  to  accomplish  in 
heaven.  When,  in  1878,  she  was  taken  seriously  ill, 
and  was  told  her  life  was  in  danger,  she  replied : 
“If  I  am  really  going,  it  is  too  good  to  be  true!” 
“Splendid!  To  be  so  near  the  gates  of  heaven.” 

This  hymn  was  written  in  1874  and  was  first 
published  as  a  New  Year’s  card,  later  in  collections 
of  her  own  works,  and  finally  in  many  hymn  books. 
It  has  proved  to  be  an  inspiration  to  thousands 
standing  at  the  threshold  of  a  new  year. 


17 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


12,  3mSt  as  31  am,  flfliit|)out  One  Plea 

Charlotte  Elliott,  1789-1871 

Many  unsaved  souls  imagine  it  is  difficult  to 
come  to  Christ.  And  this  at  first  was  the  thought 
of  Charlotte  Elliott,  the  author  of  this  hymn. 
Shortly  after  she  became  an  invalid,  with  a  helpless¬ 
ness  lasting  fifty  years,  Dr.  Caesar  Milan  visited  her 
father  and  talked  with  her  concerning  her  soul’s 
salvation.  At  first  she  rudely  resented  this,  but 
afterward  repented  and  asked  him  how  she  might 
find  the  way  to  Christ.  He  replied :  “Dear  Char¬ 
lotte,  cut  the  cable.  It  will  take  too  long  to  unloose 
it.  Cut  it.  It  is  a  small  loss  anyway.  You  must 
come  to  Christ  just  as  you  are.’’  And  so,  just  as  she 
was,  she  came  and  found  the  “peace  that  passeth 
all  understanding,”  enabling  her  to  bear  her  illness 
with  bravery. 

Twelve  years  later,  while  everyone  about  her  was 
busy  preparing  for  a  bazaar,  she  was  burdened  with 
the  thought  that  as  an  invalid  she  was  utterly  use¬ 
less  herself,  and  brooded  over  this  through  the  long 
hours  of  the  night.  But  the  next  day  her  faith  pre¬ 
vailed;  and,  remembering  the  words  of  Dr.  Milan 
which  brought  about  her  conversion,  she  took  her 
pen  and  wrote  the  wonderful  hymn,  beginning, 
“Just  as  I  am,  without  one  plea.”  Later  in  the  day 
Mrs.  H.  V.  Elliott  entered  the  room  to  tell  her  how 
the  bazaar  was  progressing,  and  while  there  she 
read  the  hymn  and  took  a  copy  of  it.  The  great 
hymn  was  thus  given  to  the  world ;  and  out  of  her 
helplessness  Charlotte  Elliott  wrought  a  blessing  to 
many  souls  that  have  been  guided  into  salvation  and 
wonderfully  strengthened  by  her  hymn. 


18 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


13.  “almost  prtsuabftt,”  jRoto  to  ffitlube 

Philip  Bliss,1  1838-1876 

In  the  year  A.  D.  62  a  certain  Roman  citizen  was 
cast  into  prison  because  of  a  multitude  of  accusa¬ 
tions  against  him.  At  his  hearing  before  Festus  he 
appealed  to  Caesar  for  justice,  and  was  held  for  trial 
at  Rome.  Shortly  afterward  he  was  asked  to  state 
his  defense  before  King  Agrippa  and  Bernice,  who 
were  then  visiting  Festus.  That  defense,  uttered 
by  Paul — for  he  was  the  accused  prisoner — is  found 
in  the  twenty-sixth  chapter  of  the  Acts  of  the 
Apostles,  and  is  one  of  the  greatest  addresses  to  be 
found  in  the  Holy  Scriptures.  At  the  conclusion 
King  Agrippa  said  to  Paul :  “Almost  thou  persuadest 
me  to  be  a  Christian/’  to  which  Paul  replied,  “I 
would  to  God  that  not  only  thou,  but  also  all  that 
hear  me  this  day,  were  both  almost  and  altogether 
such  as  I  am,  except  these  bonds.” 

A  clergyman  by  the  name  of  Brundage  was  once 
preaching  upon  this  subject  and  concluded  his  ser¬ 
mon  with  these  solemn  words : 

“He  who  is  almost  persuaded  is  almost  saved, 
but  to  be  almost  saved  is  to  be  entirely  lost.”  Philip 
Bliss  was  present  and  was  so  deeply  impressed  by 
these  words  that  he  wrote  one  of  his  most  helpful 
hymns,  based  on  the  phrase  “almost  persuaded,”  as 
a  direct  result  of  this  sermon.  During  the  Moody 
revivals  many  souls,  almost  persuaded,  were  helped 
by  the  appeal  of  this  hymn  to  decide  for  Christ 
before  it  was  too  late. 

1  The  name,  Philip  P.  Bliss,  is  often  attached  to  his  hymns,  although  the 
middle  initial  was  an  interpolation  in  his  real  name. 


19 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


14.  TOolt  aciotlli  mass  Host  in  tfje 
JDarfenfSS  ot  fein 

Philip  Bliss,  1838-1876 

Dr.  S.  Earl  Taylor,  formerly  missionary  secre¬ 
tary  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  has  visited 
Christian  missions  around  the  world,  and  has  had 
unusual  opportunity  to  hear  missionary  hymns  sung 
in  many  different  lands.  But  rarely  has  he  ever 
been  so  thrilled  by  hymn-singing,  he  declares,  as 
during  an  eclipse  of  the  sun  in  the  Orient.  In  India 
the  natives  have  a  superstitious  dread  of  an  eclipse 
of  the  sun.  They  fear  that  the  sun  is  being  swal¬ 
lowed  by  a  demon  of  some  sort. 

Once  Dr.  Taylor  was  in  Calcutta  during  an  eclipse 
of  the  sun.  For  days  before  that  event  he  saw  the 
city’s  streets  crowded  with  pilgrims  on  their  way 
to  various  sacred  places,  where  they  hoped  to  wor¬ 
ship  and  bathe  in  the  Hooghly  River  just  below  the 
Ganges  during  the  time  of  the  eclipse,  expecting 
thereby  to  ward  off  evil.  When  at  last  the  fateful 
hour  of  darkness  arrived  hundreds  of  thousands  of 
natives  thronged  the  sacred  waters,  terrorized  by 
the  eclipse  and  making  a  great  clamor  because  they 
feared  that  a  great  power  of  evil  in  the  form  of  a 
snake  was  about  to  swallow  the  sun-god.  As  Dr. 
Taylor,  looking  from  the  Y.  M.  C.  A.  Building, 
witnessed  this  terrible  evidence  of  heathenish  super¬ 
stition,  he  heard  a  group  of  native  Christians  singing 
in  their  meeting: 

The  whole  world  was  lost  in  the  darkness  of  sin; 

The  Light  of  the  world  is  Jesus. 

The  effect  was  thrilling!  For  India’s  spiritual  dark¬ 
ness  is  due  solely  to  the  eclipse  of  Jesus,  the  Light 
of  the  world,  made  by  heathenism  in  the  hearts  of 
her  benighted  millions. 


20 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


15.  Blest  Be  t&c  Eit  El)at  Binbtf 

John  Fawcett,  1739-1817 

The  Rev.  Dr.  John  Fawcett,  pastor  of  the  Baptist 
church  in  Wainsgate,  Yorkshire,  had  accepted  a  call 
to  a  London  church  and  had  preached  his  farewell 
sermon,  when  the  tender  devotion  of  his  parishioners 
compelled  him  to  sacrifice  his  larger  ambitions  for 
a  career  in  London,  and  he  remained  with  them 
until  his  death.  As  a  result  of  this  experience  he 
wrote  the  hymn,  “Blest  Be  the  Tie  That  Binds.” 

A  young  man  was  once  the  teacher  of  a  class  of 
unruly  girls  in  D.  L.  Moody’s  Sunday  school.  One 
day  he  tottered  into  Mr.  Moody’s  store,  pale  and 
bloodless,  and  exclaimed:  “I  have  been  bleeding  at 
the  lungs,  and  they  have  given  me  up  to  die.  I  must 
go  away  at  once.”  “But  you  are  not  afraid  to  die?” 
asked  Mr.  Moody.  “No,”  he  replied,  “but  I  must 
soon  stand  before  God  and  give  an  account  of  my 
stewardship,  and  not  one  of  my  Sunday  school 
scholars  has  been  brought  to  Christ.” 

Immediately  he  called  in  all  the  scholars,  appeal¬ 
ing  to  them  to  accept  Christ;  and  for  ten  days  he 
worked  and  prayed  with  them  as  never  before  until 
each  member  of  the  class  was  saved.  On  the  night 
when  he  left  for  the  distant  place,  where  he  finally 
died,  says  Mr.  Moody,  “we  held  a  true  love  feast. 
It  was  the  very  gate  of  heaven — that  meeting.”  He 
prayed  and  they  prayed,  and  then  with  streaming 
eyes  they  sang: 

“Blest  be  the  tie  that  binds 

Our  hearts  in  Christian  love; 

The  fellowship  of  kindred  minds 
Is  like  to  that  above.” 

Bidding  each  farewell  at  the  train,  the  dying  man 
whispered  that  he  would  meet  them  all  in  heaven. 


21 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


10.  TSt  Mot  SDiSmaptb  CUfjatr’er  Betlbt 

C.  D.  Martin 

A  blind  man  was  seen  crossing  the  street  at  a 
dangerous  place  in  the  Bronx,  New  York  city.  A 
friend  nearby  overheard  him  singing  softly,  “God 
will  take  care  of  you/’  and  asked,  “Why  are  you 
singing  that  hymn?”  He  replied:  “Because  I  must 
cross  this  dangerous  street,  and  maybe  one  of  the 
many  wagons  might  strike  me  and  I  might  get 
killed.  But  the  thought  came  to  me  that,  even  if 
it  did  occur,  my  soul  would  go  straight  to  God. 
And  if  He  led  me  across  all  right,  it  would  be  just 
another  evidence  of  His  care  of  me.  So  I  could  not 
help  singing  to  myself,  ‘God  will  take  care  of  you/ 
Hallelujah!” 

A  little  Sunday  school  girl  once  told  her  mother 
she  was  never  afraid  to  pass  through  a  certain  dark 
hallway  leading  to  their  home,  “because,”  she  ex¬ 
plained,  “I  simply  sing,  ‘God  will  take  care  of  you/ 
and  I  always  come  through  safely.” 

This  hymn  was  sung  at  each  session  of  the  State 
Christian  Endeavor  Convention,  Altoona,  Pennsyl¬ 
vania,  in  1910.  At  the  close  of  one  of  the  sessions 
a  man,  touched  by  the  song,  inquired  after  salvation. 
A  little  later  some  delegates,  while  singing  this  song 
at  their  hotel,  noticed  several  men  at  the  door  of 
a  nearby  barroom  attracted  by  the  singing.  One  had 
a  glass  of  beer  in  his  hand,  which  he  quietly  poured 
into  the  gutter  leading  to  the  street  before  the  strains 
of  the  song  were  finished. 


22 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


17*  flD  Beautiful  tot  fe>pactou£ 

Katharine  Lee  Bates,  1859- 

Miss  Katharine  Lee  Bates,  professor  of  Eng¬ 
lish  Literature  in  Wellesley  College,  is  the  author 
of  this  hymn.  She  wrote  it  in  1893  while  on  a 
Western  tour  that  brought  her  first  to  the  Colum¬ 
bian  Exposition  in  Chicago.  The  patriotic  impres¬ 
sions  made  upon  her  mind  by  the  wonderful  White 
City  she  bore  westward  with  her  as  she  journeyed 
to  Colorado ;  and  when  at  last  she  stood  on  the 
summit  of  Pike’s  Peak  and  beheld  the  far-spreading 
panorama  below  and  the  spacious  skies  above,  her 
soul  was  stirred  by  the  thought  of  the  greatness  and 
the  God-given  destiny  of  America.  These  lines 
were  set  ringing  in  her  heart,  and  into  a  noble  poem 
she  has  woven  the  beauties  of  that  mountain-top 
vision : 

O  beautiful  for  spacious  skies, 

For  amber  waves  of  grain, 

For  purple  mountain  majesties 
Above  the  fruited  plain ! 

Each  verse  is  rounded  with  a  prayer  that  to  the 
physical  beauty  of  her  native  land  God  may  add  the 
highest  moral  beauty: 

America !  America ! 

God  shed  His  grace  on  thee, 

And  crown  thy  good  with  brotherhood 
From  sea  to  shining  sea! 

Horatio  Parker,  one  of  the  greatest  of  American 
composers,  wrote  a  rich  melody,  “America  the 
Beautiful,”  to  which  this  hymn  is  set;  though  it  is 
frequently  sung,  and  most  effectively,  to  the  tune 
“Materna.” 


23 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


18.  JFUrts  flDut  t8e  Bannm  JLtt  3t  JFIoat 

George  Washington  Doane,  1799-1859 

George  Washington  Doane,  once  Protestant 
Episcopal  Bishop  of  New  Jersey,  was  born  the  same 
year  in  which  General  George  Washington  died — 
1799.  His  life,  which  spanned  the  years  until  1859, 
was  filled  with  remarkable  activity.  Pie  graduated 
at  Union  College  'in  1818,  began  his  ministry  at 
Trinity  Church,  New  York,  was  a  professor  in 
Trinity  College,  Hartford,  Connecticut,  and  later 
rector  of  Trinity  Church,  Boston,  when  he  was 
elected  to  be  Bishop  of  New  Jersey. 

Five  years  after  he  became  bishop,  he  founded  on 
the  banks  of  the  Delaware  River  at  Burlington, 
New  Jersey,  a  Protestant  Episcopalian  school  for 
girls,  known  as  Saint  Mary’s  Hall,  about  which  the 
best  traditions  of  the  Diocese  of  New  Jersey  have 
centered.  The  Bishop  took  the  liveliest  interest  in 
the  school,  and  watched  over  the  destiny  of  his  edu¬ 
cational  child  with  fatherly  anxiety. 

His  successor,  Bishop  John  Scarborough,  who 
inherited  through  his  office  this  interest  in  the 
school,  once  told  the  writer  how  Bishop  Doane 
came  to  write  the  famous  missionary  hymn,  “Fling 
Out  the  Banner!”  In  1848  there  was  to  be  a  flag- 
raising  at  Saint  Mary’s  Hall,  and  the  girls  of  the 
school  appealed  to  Bishop  Doane  to  write  a  song  for 
them  to  sing  on  that  occasion.  The  result  was  the 
writing  of  this  hymn,  which  was  sung  for  the  first 
time  by  the  young  ladies  of  the  seminary,  and  has 
been  sung  at  thousands  of  missionary  meetings 
since  then,  to  the  spiritual  stimulation  of  many  souls. 


24 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


19*  CSloty  Be  to  tl)e  Jfatfjet 

One  of  the  most  universally  accepted  forms  of 
worship  among  Protestants,  who  would  praise  the 
Triune  God  in  song,  is  the  ancient  “Gloria  Patri.” 
This  is,  strictly  within  the  meaning  of  the  term,  a 
doxology,  for  a  doxology  is  an  alleluia  or  other  ex¬ 
pression  of  praise  to  the  Three  Persons  of  the  Holy 
Trinity.  “Glory  be  to  the  Father,  and  to  the  Son, 
and  to  the  Holy  Ghost”  expresses  the  fundamental 
doctrine  of  the  Apostles’  Creed,  and  at  the  same 
time  utters  worshipful  praise  to  God. 

The  story  of  the  exact  origin  of  the  “Gloria  Patri” 
is  not  known,  though  it  is  thought  by  many  hymnol- 
ogists  to  have  come  to  us  from  the  apostolic  age. 
The  coming  of  Christ  as  a  babe  in  Bethlehem  was 
heralded  by  a  hymn  of  the  angels  in  the  first  Christ¬ 
mas  gloria:  “Glory  to  God  in  the  highest,  and  on 
earth  peace,  good  will  toward  men.”  After  the  Last 
Supper  with  the  Saviour  the  apostles  sang  a  hymn 
and  went  out,  as  it  is  recorded  in  the  gospel. 
Hymn-singing  was  one  of  the  peculiar  customs  of 
the  early  Christians  observed  by  secular  writers  of 
that  age.  There  is  inspiration  to  us  in  the  thought 
that  the  Christians  of  this  day  make  such  frequent 
use  of  the  hymn  to  the  Trinity,  sung  by  Christians 
in  the  apostolic  age. 

It  is  said  that  on  May  26,  A.  D.  735,  when  his 
death  was  approaching,  The  Venerable  Bede,  the 
most  eminent  sacred  scholar  of  his  age,  asked  his 
friends  to  carry  him  to  that  part  of  the  room  where 
he  usually  prayed;  and  there  he  sang  the  “Gloria 
Patri” ;  and  when  at  last  he  had  sung,  “World  with¬ 
out  end,  Amen,”  his  spirit  fled  to  the  land  of  eternal 
life. 


25 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


20*  US  CliUag  a  WHanbetirtQ;  &f)tt p 

Horatius  Bonar,  1808-1889 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Horatius  Bonar,  a  graduate  of 
the  University  of  Edinburgh,  was  one  of  the  found¬ 
ers  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scotland  in  1843.  He 
wrote  a  great  many  hymns  that  are  widely  used.  In 
his  hymn,  “I  Was  a  Wandering  Sheep,”  he  has  told 
the  story  of  salvation  in  simple  terms  that  a  child 
can  understand. 

Dr.  Long  has  written  an  account  of  the  revival 
in  a  girls’  school  in  Massachusetts,  where  many  of 
the  girls  had  shown  a  great  indifference  to  religion. 
Among  the  girls  who  laughed  at  the  meetings  and 

their  results  was  one  by  the  name  of  Helen  B - . 

They  sought  to  interest  her  in  attending  the  prayer 
meetings,  but  all  they  could  do  was  to  pray  for  her. 
One  evening,  however,  they  were  amazed  to  see 
Helen  enter  the  meeting  with  eyes  downcast  and 
face  very  pale.  After  a  few  hymns  and  prayers 
each  one  quoted  some  favorite  hymn  verses.  When 
Helen’s  turn  came  there  was  a  silence,  and  then  she 
began : 

“I  was  a  wandering  sheep, 

I  did  not  love  the  fold.” 

“Her  voice  was  low  but  distinct;  and  every  word, 
as  she  uttered  it,  thrilled  the  hearts  of  the  listeners. 
She  repeated  one  stanza  after  another  of  that  beau¬ 
tiful  hymn  of  Bonar’s,  and  not  an  eye,  save  her  own, 
was  dry,  as  with  sweet  emphasis  she  pronounced  the 
last  lines : 

‘No  more  a  wayward  child, 

I  seek  no  more  to  roam/ 

That  single  hymn  told  all.  The  wandering  sheep, 
the  wayward  child,  had  returned.” 


26 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


2L  Conte,  £>  ®jou  ftlH^ictottoug 

Charles  Wesley,  1707-1788 

In  June,  1746,  Charles  Wesley  visited  Portland 
and  preached  to  the  workingmen  who  were  employed 
in  the  quarries  of  that  region;  but  he  was  evidently 
impressed  that  the  hearts  of  some  of  his  hearers 
were  as  hard  as  the  stone  in  which  they  wrought  day 
after  day.  This  hymn  is  entitled  :  “Written  Before 
Preaching  at  Portland,”  and  perhaps  the  thoughts 
which  inspired  it  can  best  be  presented  by  quoting 
from  his  diary : 

June  6.  “I  preached  to  a  houseful  of  staring, 
loving  people,  from  Jer.  50.  20.  Some  wept, 
but  some  looked  quite  unawakened.  At  noon  and 
night  I  preached  on  the  hill  in  the  midst  of  the  island. 
Most  of  the  inhabitants  came  to  hear,  but  few  as 
yet  feel  the  burden  of  sin,  or  the  want  of  a  Saviour. 

“Sun.,  June  8. — After  evening  service  we  had  all 
the  islanders  that  were  able  to  come.  I  asked,  Ts 
it  nothing  to  you,  all  ye  that  pass  by  ?’  About  half  a 
dozen  answered,  Tt  is  nothing  to  us,’  by  turning  their 
backs,  but  the  rest  hearkened  with  greater  signs  of 
emotion  than  I  had  before  observed.  I  found  faith 
at  this  time  that  our  labors  would  not  be  in  vain.” 
The  next  day  “the  power  and  blessing  came.  My 
mouth  and  their  hearts  were  opened.  The  rocks 
were  broken  in  pieces,  and  melted  into  tears  on  every 
side.  I  continued  exhorting  them  from  seven  till 
ten,  to  save  themselves  from  this  untoward  genera¬ 
tion.  We  could  hardly  part.” 

Wesley’s  hymn  speaks  in  terms  of  the  quarry- 
man’s  daily  work: 

Come,  O  Thou  all-victorious  Lord, 

Thy  power  to  us  make  known ; 

Strike  with  the  hammer  of  Thy  word, 

And  break  these  hearts  of  stone. 


27 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


22.  Sainout,  ©teatfit  an  flCbenlno;  ©legging 

James  Edmeston,  1791-1867 

By  profession  an  architect  and  surveyor,  James 
Edmeston  became  eminent  in  this  field.  Sir  G.  Gil¬ 
bert  Scott,  the  noted  architect,  was  one  of  his  pupils. 
But  Edmeston  is  remembered  to-day  chiefly  by  the 
hymns  which  he  wrote.  He  was  the  author  of  over 
two  thousand,  most  of  them  having  been  written  for 
children.  The  most  popular  of  them  all  is  “Saviour, 
Breathe  an  Evening  Blessing.” 

One  evening  in  1819  he  was  reading  of  Salte’s 
exciting  adventures,  in  a  book  entitled  Travels  in 
Abyssinia,  when  he  came  upon  this  passage  concern¬ 
ing  the  natives,  which  was  in  striking  contrast  with 
what  had  gone  before :  “At  night  their  short  even¬ 
ing  hymn,  ‘Jesu  Mahaxaroo’ — ‘Jesus,  forgive  us’ — 
stole  through  the  camp.” 

Its  simple  beauty  and  significance  struck  him  so 
forcefully  that  he  at  once  laid  aside  the  fascinating 
book  of  travel  and  proceeded  to  compose  the  hymn, 

Saviour,  breathe  an  evening  blessing, 

Ere  repose  our  spirits  seal; 

Sin  and  want  we  come  confessing: 

Thou  canst  save  and  Thou  canst  heal. 

The  hymn  was  sung  at  the  close  of  evening  wor¬ 
ship  at  the  church,  which  the  author  attended,  in 
Homerton ;  and  the  beautiful  custom  was  continued 
thereafter  for  many  years.  It  was  first  published  in 
Sacred  Lyrics  the  year  after  it  was  written.  Bishop 
Biekersteth  afterward  used  the  hymn  in  his  Chris¬ 
tian  Psalmody,  and  in  a  later  hymn  book  added 
another  verse  of  his  own  composition,  beginning: 
“Father,  to  Thy  holy  keeping.”  The  line,  “Should 
swift  death  this  night  overtake  us,”  has  been  altered 
in  some  hymn  books  to  read,  “Be  Thou  nigh,  should 
death  o’ertake  us,”  thus  eliminating  the  reference 
to  sudden  death. 


28 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


23*  a  jftknb  Cot  Jiittlt  CStf&ten 

Albert  Midlane,  1825-1909 

What  responsibilities  and  opportunities  are  in  the 
hands  of  a  Sunday  school  teacher !  Albert  Midlane, 
an  ironmonger,  who  wrote  hundreds  of  Christian 
hymns,  a  large  number  of  which  have  passed  into 
common  use,  gave  to  his  faithful  teacher  in  the 
Sunday  school  at  Newport,  Isle  of  Wight,  where 
he  was  born,  the  credit  for  starting  him  upon  his 
poetic  career  as  a  little  boy,  as  well  as  for  shaping 
the  thoughts  and  purposes  of  his  early  life.  This 
teacher  was  a  constant  reader  of  poetry,  and  so  lov¬ 
ingly  guided  his  appreciation  and  his  efforts  in  this 
field  that  before  he  was  nine  years  old  he  wrote  a 
series  of  verses  that  were  greatly  admired  in  his 
circle  of  older  acquaintances. 

Another  influence  had  its  bearing  upon  his  life. 
His  father  died  three  months  before  he  was  born, 
and  years  later  his  mother  said  to  him :  “Albert,  they 
told  me  when  your  dear  father  died  that  my  child 
would  be  the  Lord’s  gift  to  cheer  and  help  me  in 
my  widowhood.”  This  awakened  in  his  heart  a  new 
sense  of  love  for  that  divine  “Friend  for  little  chil¬ 
dren,”  whose  everlasting  and  unchanging  friendship 
is  so  tenderly  acknowledged  in  this  hymn. 

Of  all  of  his  hymns  this  has  proved  to  be  the 
most  popular.  It  was  first  scribbled  in  a  little  note¬ 
book  which  the  author  carried  about  with  him.  He 
said  afterwards  that  it  came  straight  from  his  heart. 
And  it  has  reached  the  hearts  of  thousands  of  little 
children.  When  in  his  old  age  he  was  reduced  to 
poverty,  a  popular  subscription  was  taken  among  the 
children  of  England  and  a  goodly  sum  was  given  to 
him  as  a  token  of  their  affection. 


29 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


24.  3Tm  But  a  fettanuec  l&ete 

Thomas  Rawson  Taylor,  1807-1835 

Born  at  Ossett  in  Yorkshire,  England,  young 
Taylor  received  his  earlier  education  at  the  Free 
School,  Bradford,  and  at  Leaf  Square  Academy, 
Manchester.  At  the  age  of  fifteen  he  entered  a 
merchant’s  office  and  later  a  printing  establishment, 
where  he  worked  until  he  was  eighteen.  His  re¬ 
ligious  experience  was  so  vital  that  he  decided  to 
leave  business  and  enter  the  Christian  ministry.  To 
that  end  he  matriculated  at  Airedale  Independent 
College  to  prepare  himself  for  ordination  in  the 
Congregational  Church. 

We  are  told  that  his  health  during  college  days 
was  so  precarious  that  he  realized  that  he  must  be 
up  and  about  his  Master's  business,  as  his  time  for 
witnessing  to  the  truth  might  prove  to  be  short. 
Accordingly,  while  pursuing  his  studies,  he  fre¬ 
quently  preached  the  gospel  in  his  college  town  and 
in  the  neighboring  towns  and  villages.  He  was 
developing  early  that  sense  of  other-worldliness  that 
finds  expression  in  his  hymn. 

At  length  he  left  college  to  be  ordained,  and  in 
July,  1830,  began  serving  the  Howard  Street  Chapel 
in  Sheffield.  But  this  proved  to  be  his  only  pasto¬ 
rate,  and  he  had  been  there  but  six  months  when  his 
health  broke  down  and  in  January,  1831,  he  relin¬ 
quished  the  charge.  Shortly  afterward  he  began 
teaching  as  a  tutor  in  the  classics  at  Airedale  Col¬ 
lege,  but  after  a  time  this  too  proved  too  much  for 
his  feeble  body  and  he  was  obliged  to  resign.  As 
night  was  closing  about  his  life  he  wrote  these  lines, 

I’m  but  a  stranger  here, 

Heaven  is  my  home. 

He  died  in  1835.  The  words  which  he  uttered 
in  the  sermon  on  the  night  before  he  died  inspired 
Montgomery’s  hymn,  “Servant  of  God,  Well  Done!” 
(q.  v„  page  33). 


30 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


25.  JFtom  CEbccg  fetomtf)  dumb  Hat  23(oto3 

Hugh  Stowell,  1799-1865 

Canon  Stowell,  of  Chester  Cathedral,  had  little 
sympathy  with  the  Tractarian  Movement  in  the 
church,  was  thoroughly  evangelical,  and  above  all 
was  a  man  of  great  power  in  prayer.  When  he  was 
rector  of  Christ  Church,  Salford,  such  great  crowds 
came  to  hear  him  preach  that  a  magnificent  new 
church  had  to  be  built  to  accommodate  his  audiences. 
Three  years  before  going  to  Salford,  desiring  to 
give  poetic  expression  to  his  faith  and  his  comfort  in 
prayer,  he  wrote  this  poem,  entitled,  “Peace  at  the 
Mercy  Seat,”  which  was  first  published  in  an  illus¬ 
trated  annual,  The  Winter’s  Wreath,  in  1828.  It 
was  but  one  of  many  poems  with  which  he  enriched 
Christian  hymnody. 

It  has  been  sung  through  the  decades  by  Christian 
people  amidst  varying  degrees  of  trial  and  difficulty, 
bringing  to  their  hearts  the  comforting  thought  of 
“a  calm,  a  sure  retreat”  to  be  found  at  the  “blood- 
bought  mercy  seat.”  But  never  has  it  been  sung 
with  more  dramatic  meaning  than  when  in  1857  the 
eight  American  missionaries,  the  Rev.  Albert  John¬ 
son,  John  E.  Freeman,  David  E.  Campbell,  John 
McMullen  and  their  wives  sang  it  in  Cawnpore, 
India,  just  before  they  and  the  two  Campbell  chil¬ 
dren  suffered  the  death  of  Christian  martyrs  by 
order  of  the  blood-thirsty  Nana  Sahib. 

Stowell’s  son  once  wrote  that  his  father’s  death 
illustrated  Montgomery’s  lines, 

His  watchword  at  the  gates  of  death, 

He  enters  heaven  by  prayer. 

“My  father’s  last  utterances,”  he  added,  “abundantly 
showed  his  love  of  and  delight  in  prayer.  Almost 
every  word  was  prayer.  .  .  .  The  morning  of  his 
death  the  only  articulate  words  that  we  could  catch, 
uttered  two  or  three  hours  before  his  decease,  were, 
‘Amen !  Amen !’  ” 


31 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


26.  €>ut  of  'Elite  IS  (Blab  flCJItJ  l^opt 

John  Greenleaf  Whittier,  1807-1892 


Concord,  Massachusetts,  is  not  only  one  of  Amer¬ 
ica's  most  sacred  literary  shrines,  the  old  home  of 
Emerson,  Hawthorne,  Thoreau,  Alcott,  Margaret 
Fuller,  and  Ellery  Channing,  but  it  is  also  a  p’ace 
of  dramatic  significance  in  the  early  struggle  of  the 
American  colonists  for  freedom,  the  spot  where  in 


1775 


Th’  embattled  farmers  stood, 
And  fired  the  shot  heard  round  the  world. 


To  this  town  of  hallowed  memories,  just  two 
years  before  his  death,  the  Quaker  poet,  John  G. 
Whittier,  was  invited  by  Daniel  Lothrop,  the  pub¬ 
lisher,  and  his  wife.  The  occasion  was  a  reception 
to  be  given  in  honor  of  the  wife  of  General  John  A. 
Logan,  who  had  distinguished  himself  in  the  Civil 
War  and  later  in  civic  life. 

At  that  time,  however,  Whittier,  who  was  eighty- 
three  years  old  and  was  suffering  from  the  infirmi¬ 
ties  of  advanced  age,  could  only  send  this  note  of 
regret : 

“I  cannot  be  with  you  on  the  14th,  owing  to  the 
state  of  my  health ;  but  I  send  you  some  lines  which 
I  hope  may  not  seem  inappropriate.  I  am  very  truly 
thy  friend,  John  G.  Whittier." 

Accompanying  the  letter,  came  a  poem,  entitled, 
“Our  Country,"  and  beginning  with  the  lines, 

Our  thought  of  thee  is  glad  with  hope, 

Dear  country  of  our  love  and  prayer. 

Giving  to  God’s  grace  devout  acknowledgment  for 
America’s  salvation  when  “tried  as  by  furnace  fires," 
his  lines  bear  a  special  message  to  our  own  age : 

With  peace  that  comes  of  purity, 

And  strength  to  simple  justice  due, 

So  runs  our  loyal  dream  of  thee. 

God  of  our  fathers !  make  it  true. 

32 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


27.  &etbant  ot  (Sob,  WHdl  SDone* 

James  Montgomery,  1771-1854 

The  Rev.  Thomas  Taylor,  a  Methodist  minister, 
on  the  evening  of  October  14,  1816,  was  preaching 
a  sermon,  and  in  the  course  of  his  address  he  stated 
his  hope  that  when  he  died  he  would  die  as  an  old 
soldier  of  Jesus  Christ  with  his  sword  in  his  hand. 
The  very  next  morning  his  family  found  him  dead 
in  his  bed.  The  news  of  his  sudden  death  was  a 
shock  to  the  wide  circle  of  his  friends,  and  among 
them  was  counted  James  Montgomery,  the  editor  of 
The  Sheffield  Iris,  who  was  already  known  as  a 
great  hymn  writer. 

In  commemoration  of  Taylor’s  death  and  with  the 
courageous  words  of  his  last  sermon  in  mind,  Mont¬ 
gomery  wrote  this  hymn  entitled  “The  Christian  Sol¬ 
dier,”  which  begins  with  these  lines : 

“Servant  of  God,  well  done ! 

Rest  from  thy  loved  employ; 

The  battle  fought,  the  victory  won, 

Enter  thy  Master’s  joy.” 

The  voice  at  midnight  came ; 

He  started  up  to  hear ; 

A  mortal  arrow  pierced  his  frame; 

He  fell;  but  felt  no  fear. 

The  hymn  is  not  to  be  confused  with  another  hymn 
with  the  same  first  line  by  Charles  Wesley, 

Servant  of  God,  well  done ! 

Thy  glorious  warfare’s  past. 

This  latter  appeared  at  the  end  of  the  published  ser¬ 
mon  by  John  Wesley,  preached  in  the  Tabernacle  at 
Tottenham  Court  Row  at  the  funeral  of  George 
Whitefield,  who  died  September  30,  1770. 


33 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


28.  (Boli  of  flDur  JFatljfriS,  Unoton  of  flDIb 

Rudyard  Kipling,  1865- 

Though  never  appointed  poet  laureate  of  Eng¬ 
land,  the  great  British  poet,  Kipling,  born  in  Bom¬ 
bay,  India,  has  written  more  virile  and  enduring 
poetry  than  many  another  poet  who  has  obtained  that 
office  as  a  mark  of  regal  favor.  When  after  a  half 
century  upon  the  British  throne  Queen  Victoria 
celebrated  her  Diamond  Jubilee,  and  “the  captains 
and  the  kings”  of  earth  assembled  to  do  honor  to 
the  ruler  who  claimed  “dominion  over  palm  and 
pine,”  London  witnessed  the  greatest  pageant  and 
the  most  elaborate  ceremonies  of  the  kind  ever  per¬ 
formed.  And  there  arose  a  chorus  of  poetry  from 
many  bards  in  honor  of  that  unusual  event.  But  no 
note  was  sounded,  combining  such  literary  beauty 
and  moral  strength  in  its  utterance,  as  that  of  “The 
Recessional.” 

Kipling’s  own  account  of  the  writing  of  the  poem 
has  been  quoted  by  Dr.  Wilbur  F.  Tillett: 

“That  poem  gave  me  more  trouble  than  anything 
I  ever  wrote.  I  had  promised  the  Times  a  poem  on 
the  Jubilee,  and  when  it  became  due  I  had  written 
nothing  that  had  satisfied  me.  The  Times  began  to 
want  that  poem  badly,  and  sent  letter  after  letter 
asking  for  it.  I  made  many  more  attempts,  but  no 
further  progress.  Finally  the  Times  began  sending 
telegrams.  So  I  shut  myself  in  a  room  with  the 
determination,  to  stay  there  until  I  had  written  a 
Jubilee  poem.  Sitting  down  with  all  my  previous 
attempts  before  me,  I  searched  through  those  dozens 
of  sketches  till  at  last  I  found  just  one  line  I  liked. 
That  was  ‘Lest  we  forget/  Round  these  words  ‘The 
Recessional’  was  written.” 

The  first  hymn  book  which  included  it  as  a  hymn 
was  the  Baptist  Sursum  Corda,  published  in  Phila¬ 
delphia  in  1898.  Since  that  time  it  has  passed  into 
common  use  as  a  hymn  of  peace  and  patriotism. 

34 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


29.  Jtotb,  l?oto  JFulI  of  Content 

Madame  Guyon  (Jeanne  Marie  Bouvieres  de  la  Mothe), 

1648-1717 

(Translated  by  William  Cowper,  1731-1800) 

Madame  Guyon  was  a  Mystic,  a  friend  of  the 
great  Fenelon,  and  an  enthusiastic  apostle  of  Quiet¬ 
ism.  Educated  in  a  convent  at  Montargis,  France, 
the  town  in  which  she  was  born,  she  devoted  much 
study  to  the  writings  of  Saint  Francis  de  Sales, 
Madame  de  Chantal,  and  Thomas  a  Kempis,  which 
largely  determined  the  character  of  her  faith.  Fler 
marriage  at  the  age  of  sixteen  to  the  wealthy  M. 
Guyon  resulted  unhappily.  After  a  series  of  long 
illnesses  he  died  in  1676. 

Shortly  afterward  she  started  her  career  as  an 
evangelist  of  Quietism,  and  as  the  influence  of  her 
teachings  expanded  she  incurred  the  displeasure  of 
the  Roman  Catholic  Church  and  a  virulent  persecu¬ 
tion  against  her  was  begun.  In  1686,  when  she  came 
to  Paris,  she  was  imprisoned  in  the  Convent  of  Saint 
Marie  for  eight  months.  Again  after  an  ecclesias¬ 
tical  commission  had  warned  her  to  be  less  active, 
she  was  cast  into  prison  at  Vincennes  in  1695  until 
the  following  year.  Refusing  to  cease  her  propa¬ 
ganda,  she  was  incarcerated  in  the  Bastille  from 
1698  until  1702,  expecting  almost  daily  to  be  ex¬ 
ecuted  for  heresy.  After  her  release  she  was  ban¬ 
ished  to  a  distant  province,  where  she  remained  in 
retirement  with  her  daughter. 

And  yet  in  what  spirit  she  bore  these  tribulations 
for  the  sake  of  the  faith  that  was  within  her  we  may 
understand  from  William  Cowper’s  translation  of 
her  French  hymn: 

My  Lord,  how  full  of  sweet  content 
I  pass  my  years  of  banishment. 

Where’er  I  dwell,  I  dwell  with  Thee, 

In  heaven  or  earth  or  on  the  sea. 


35 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


30.  JeStisS,  COfim’er  'Ejip  people  9?tet 

William  Cowper,  1731-1800 

John  Newton  and  William  Cowper  were  associ¬ 
ated  together  in  the  preparation  of  Olney  Hymns, 
which  was  published  in  1779,  not  only  to  promote 
the  faith  and  comfort  of  sincere  Christians,  but  also, 
as  Newton  says  in  the  Preface,  “to  perpetuate  the 
remembrance  of  an  intimate  and  endeared  friend¬ 
ship”  between  these  two  devout  men.  Both  of  them 
were  excellent  hymn  writers.  Newton  was  ordained 
to  the  curacy  of  Olney  in  1764.  Cowper  went  to 
live  in  Olney  in  1768.  Among  the  many  bonds 
which  strengthened  this  mutual  friendship  was  their 
common  interest  in  a  neighborhood  prayer  meeting. 

The  following  year,  1769,  the  prayer  meeting  was 
removed  to  the  great  room  in  the  Great  House  near 
the  church.  Newton  said  of  it  in  a  letter  to  Mr. 
Clunie,  that  April :  “It  is  a  noble  place,  with  a  parlor 
behind  it,  and  holds  one  hundred  and  thirty  people 
conveniently.  Pray  for  us,  that  the  Lord  may  be  in 
the  midst  of  us  there,  and  that  as  He  has  now 
given  us  a  Rehoboth,  and  has  made  room  for  us, 
so  that  He  may  be  pleased  to  add  to  our  numbers,  and 
make  us  fruitful  in  the  land.” 

To  signalize  the  removal  of  the  prayer  meeting, 
each  of  them  wrote  a  hymn  for  the  collection  of 
Olney  Hymns.  Newton’s  was  “O  Lord,  Our 
Languid  Frames  Inspire,”  or,  as  it  is  better  known, 
“Dear  Shepherd  of  Thy  People,  Hear.”  Cowper’s 
hymn  was  “Jesus,  Where’er  Thy  People  Meet,” 
entitled,  “On  Opening  a  Place  for  Social  Prayer.” 
Cowper  sometimes  led  these  meetings ;  and  the  Rev. 
William  Bull,  of  Newport  Pagnell,  who  occasionally 
attended  them,  has  recorded  the  opinion  that  some 
of  those  present  “never  heard  praying  that  equaled 
Mr.  Cowper’s.” 


36 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


31.  SfjSug,  fcofott  ot  &oul 

Charles  Wesley,  1707-1788 

In  the  Civil  War  of  the  sixties  many  drummer- 
boys  had  left  school  to  join  the  army.  One  of  them, 
named  Tom,  was  called  “the  young  deacon,”  as  he 
was  a  great  favorite  and  was  respected  by  the  sol¬ 
diers  for  his  religious  life.  Both  his  widowed 
mother  and  his  sister  were  dead,  so  he  had  gone  to 
war.  One  day  he  told  the  chaplain  he  had  had  a 
dream  the  night  before.  In  his  sleep  he  was  greeted 
home  again  by  his  mother  and  little  sister.  “How 
glad  they  were !”  he  said.  “My  mother  pressed  me 
to  her  heart.  I  didn’t  seem  to  remember  they  were 
dead.  O,  sir,  it  was  just  as  real  as  you  are  real 
now!”  “Thank  God,  Tom,”  replied  the  chaplain, 
“that  you  have  such  a  mother,  not  really  dead  but 
in  heaven,  and  that  you  are  hoping  through  Christ 
to  meet  her  again.” 

The  following  day  in  frightful  battle  both  armies 
swept  over  the  same  ground  four  times,  and  at  night 
between  the  two  armies  lay  many  dead  and 
wounded  that  neither  dared  approach.  Tom  was 
missing;  but  when  the  battle  roar  was  over  they 
recognized  his  voice  singing,  softly  and  beautifully, 
“Jesus,  Lover  of  My  Soul.”  When  he  had  sung, 

“Leave,  ah !  leave  me  not  alone, 

Still  support  and  comfort  me/' 

the  voice  stopped  and  there  was  silence.  .  In  the 
morning  the  soldiers  found  Tom  sitting  on  the 
ground  and  leaning  against  a  stump — dead.  But 
they  knew  that  his  “helpless  soul”  had  found  refuge 
with  Jesus,  the  Lover  of  the  soul. 


37 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


32.  ftHgen  3  feutbep  t|e  CUon&rouo  €to&3 

Isaac  Watts,  1674-1748 

r' 

Matthew  Arnold  declared  the  greatest  Chris- 
tian  hymn  in  the  English  language  to  be  “When  I 
Survey  the  Wondrous  Cross.”  At  least  it  is  admit¬ 
tedly  the  greatest  hymn  of  a  great  hymn-writer, 
Isaac  Watts,  the  father  of  modern  English  hym- 
nody. ,  He  was  the  son  of  a  deacon  in  the  Indepen¬ 
dent  Church,  who  had  no  sympathy  with  young 
Watts’s  custom  of  making  rhymes  and  verses  when 
a  boy.  At  the  age  of  eighteen  Watts  was  one  day 
ridiculing  some  of  the  poor  hymns  then  sung  in  the 
churches,  when  his  father  said  to  him,  sarcastically, 
“Make  some  yourself,  then.”  Accordingly,  Watts 
set  himself  to  writing  a  hymn,  and  produced  the 
lines  beginning:  “Behold  the  glories  of  the  Lamb.”  > 
That  was  the  start  of  his  eminent  career  as  a  hymn- 
writer. 

He  became  a  clergyman,  but  illness  compelled 
him  to  give  up  the  pastorate,  and  for  thirty-six  years 
he  remained  at  the  home  of  Sir  Thomas  Abbey  at 
Theobaldo,  continuing  his  hymn-writing,  which  had 
reached  its  highest  expression  in  this  hymn,  based 
on  Paul’s  words,  “God  forbid  that  I  should  glory, 
save  in  the  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ.” 

Once,  after  this  hymn  had  been  sung  in  the 
Church  of  Saint  Edmund,  London,  Father  Ignatius* 
repeated  to  his  congregation  the  last  two  lines  of 
the  hymn  impressively — 

“Love  so  amazing,  so  divine, 

Demands  my  soul,  my  life,  my  all.” 

And  he  added :  “Well,  I  am  surprised  to  hear  you 
sing  that.  Do  you  know  that  altogether  you  put 
only  fifteen  shillings  in  the  collection  bag  this  morn¬ 
ing?” 


38 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


33.  SLll  CBIotg,  Eaub,  anb  H?onot 

Saint  Theodulph,  ?-82i 

Some  of  our  best  hymns  were  originally  written 
many  centuries  ago  in  the  Latin  language,  and  have 
been  brought  into  our  English  hymnody  by  devout 
modern  translators.  In  the  year  A.  D.  820  Theo¬ 
dulph,  the  Bishop  of  Orleans,  was  imprisoned  at 
Metz  by  King  Louis,  the  Debonnaire,  who  was  the 
son  of  Charlemagne.  The  Bishop  had  been  falsely 
accused  of  disloyalty  to  his  king,  but  he  bore  with 
patience  his  captivity  and  the  ignominy  brought  upon 
him  by  suspicious  gossipers. 

While  in  prison  his  meditations  were  upon  the 
King  of  kings,  and,  taking  the  beautiful  story  of 
Christ’s  triumphal  entry  into  Jerusalem  as  his 
theme,  he  wrote  a  Palm  Sunday  hymn  that  has  sur¬ 
vived  to  the  Christian  Church  these  eleven  hundred 
years : 

All  glory,  laud  and  honor  to  Thee,  Redeemer,  King, 

To  whom  the  lips  of  children  made  sweet  hosannas  ring. 

Our  translation  was  made  by  the  Rev.  Dr.  John 
Mason  Neale. 

An  ancient  tradition  has  it  that  the  Bishop  trained 
a  chorus  within  the  cloisters  to  sing  his  hymn  with 
beautiful  effect;  and  once  they  were  singing  it  thus 
while  King  Louis  and  his  court  were  passing  on 
their  way  to  the  Cathedral.  So  enchanted  was  the  - 
king  by  its  beauty  that  he  commanded  that  the 
Bishop  be  released  from  his  prison  at  once.  The 
following  year  he  died;  but  his  church  canonized 
him  because  of  his  preeminent  piety.  And  to-day  he 
is  known  as  “Saint  Theodulph.” 


39 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


34.  <&$e  SDag  ol  Kcfiutrcction 

John  of  Damascus,  ?-78o  . 

Eastertide  brings  a  worldwide  joy,  and  its  com¬ 
ing  is  celebrated  in  many  different  ways.  Dean 
Stanley  once  penned  a  description  of  an  Easter 
celebration  in  the  Greek  Church  in  which  the  hymn, 
“The  Day  of  Resurrection/’  was  sung  in  the  original 
Greek,  as  it  was  first  written,  and  with  all  of  its 
original  beauty : 

“As  midnight  approached,  the  Archbishop  with 
his  priests,  accompanied  by  the  king  and  queen,  left 
the  church  and  stationed  themselves  on  the  platform, 
which  was  raised  considerably  from  the  ground,  so 
that  they  were  distinctly  seen  by  the  people.  .  .  . 
Suddenly  a  single  report  from  a  cannon  announced 
that  twelve  o’clock  had  struck,  and  that  Easter  Day 
had  begun.  Then  the  old  Archbishop  elevated  the 
cross,  exclaimed  in  a  loud,  exalted  tone :  * Christos 
anesti.’  And  instantly  every  single  individual  of  all 
that  host  took  up  the  cry,  .  .  .  with  a  shout,  ‘Christ 
is  risen  !  Christ  is  risen !’ 

“At  the  same  moment  the  impressive  darkness  was 
succeeded  by  a  blaze  of  light  from  thousands  of 
tapers.  .  .  .  Everywhere  men  clasped  each  other’s 
hands  and  congratulated  one  another  and  embraced 
with  countenances  beaming  with  delight,  as  though 
to  each  one  separately  some  wonderful  happiness 
had  been  proclaimed;  and  so  in  truth  it  was.  And 
all  the  while,  rising  above  the  mingling  of  many 
sounds,  each  one  of  which  was  a  sound  of  gladness, 
the  aged  priests  were  distinctly  heard  chanting  forth 
this  glorious  old  ‘hymn  of  victory’  in  tones  so  loud 
and  clear  that  they  seemed  to  have  regained  their 
youth  to  tell  the  world  that  Christ  is  risen  from  the 
dead.” 


40 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


35.  an  tje  potoer  of  /|2anu< 

Edward  Perronet,  1726-1792 

The  Rev.  Edward  Perronet  was  a  most  devout 
man,  who  had  the  courage  of  his  convictions  and 
was  not  afraid  to  suffer  for  what  he  thought  to  be 
right.  He  lived  in  the  days  of  the  Wesleys  and  was 
intimate  with  them,  and  the  philanthropic  Lady 
Huntingdon  was  his  patroness  for  a  time.  But  these 
friends  he  felt  it  necessary  to  surrender  because  he 
conscientiously  differed  with  them  on  some  points 
of  belief.  His  immortal  hymn,  “All  Hail  the  Power 
of  Jesus’  Name,”  has  proved  a  blessing  to  Protes¬ 
tants  of  all  beliefs. 

One  of  the  most  dramatic  instances  of  its  use  was 
found  in  the  experience  of  the  Rev.  E.  P.  Scott  in 
India.  His  friends  had  urged  him  not  to  venture 
near  a  certain  barbarous  inland  tribe,  whom  he 
wished  to  evangelize.  But  he  went  forward  with 
high  courage,  never  wavering  in  his  duty,  and  trust¬ 
ing  in  God  to  protect  him.  When  at  last  he  reached 
their  country  among  the  hills,  he  came  upon  a  com¬ 
pany  of  these  savages.  Immediately  they  surrounded 
him,  pointing  their  spears  at  him  with  threatening 
scowls.  He  had  nothing  in  his  hands  but  his  violin ; 
and  so,  closing  his  eyes,  he  began  to  play  and  sing, 
“All  Hail  the  Power  of  Jesus’  Name.”  When  at 
last  he  opened  his  eyes  he  expected  to  be  killed  in¬ 
stantly.  But  his  life  had  been  spared  through  the 
singing  of  the  hymn.  Their  spears  had  dropped, 
and  they  received  him  first  with  curiosity  and  inter¬ 
est,  and  then  later  with  eagerness,  as  he  told  them 
the  gospel  story  and  won  their  hearts  to  the  will  of 
Jesus  Christ. 


41 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


36.  Clip,  fe>tanb  dip  tot  3|egugD 

George  Duffield,  Jr.,  1818-1888 

The  hymn,  “Stand  Up,  Stand  Up  for  Jesus/’  was 
written  during  the  great  revival  of  1858,  that  came 
to  be  known  as  “The  Work  of  God  in  Philadelphia.” 
It  was  based  upon  the  dying  words  of  the  Rev. 
Dudley  A.  Tyng,  one  of  the  most  active  ministers 
in  the  revival.  It  is  said  that,  when  he  preached 
on  March  30,  1858,  at  the  noonday  prayer  meeting 
in  Jayne’s  Hall,  five  thousand  men  listened  to  his 
sermon  from  the  text,  “Go  now,  ye  that  are  men, 
and  serve  the  Lord,”  and  that  before  the  close  of 
the  meeting  over  a  thousand  expressed  their  purpose 
to  become  Christians. 

A  few  days  later  at  “Brookfield,”  not  far  from 
Conshohocken,  Pennsylvania,  he  left  his  study  for 
a  moment  and  went  out  to  the  barn,  where  a  mule 
was  working,  harnessed  to  a  machine,  shelling  corn. 
When  he  patted  the  mule  on  the  head,  his  sleeve 
caught  in  the  cogs  of  the  wheel  and  his  arm  was 
frightfully  torn. 

After  a  painful  but  short  illness,  death  finally 
claimed  him.  As  he  was  dying,  his  father  asked 
him  if  he  had  any  message  for  his  fellow  ministers 
in  the  revival.  He  replied,  “Let  us  all  stand  up  for 
Jesus.”  That  message  was  borne  to  them  along  with 
the  sorrowful  news  of  his  death.  Dr.  George 
Duffield,  Jr.,  the  following  Sunday  preached  a  memo¬ 
rial  sermon  on  his  late  friend,  Tyng,  taking  as  his 
text  Ephesians  6.  14;  and  he  wrote  this  hymn,  based 
upon  Tyng’s  dying  words,  as  a  fitting  climax  to  the 
thought  of  his  sermon.  A  reference  to  the  text  of 
Dudley  Tyng’s  memorable  sermon  to  the  men  in 
Jayne’s  Hall  is  to  be  found  in  the  line, 

Ye  that  are  men  now  serve  Him. 


42 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


37»  iFrom  Cfttccnlanli'g  3c?  fountain* 

Reginald  Heber,  1783-1826 

Bishop  Reginald  Heber,  after  years  of  longing 
for  the  spread  of  the  gospel  in  India,  crowned  his 
career  with  a  few  years  of  most  useful  service  as 
Bishop  of  Calcutta.  He  made  extensive  visitations 
among  the  struggling  missions  nearly  a  century  ago 
and  ordained  the  first  Christian  native,  Christian 
David.  At  last  he  laid  down  his  life,  a  victim  of 
fever,  as  a  result  of  his  labors  in  that  benighted 
land. 

During  the  years  of  his  life  as  rector  of  Hodnet, 
while  longing  for  a  career  in  India,  he  wrote  many 
hymns,  as  well  as  other  forms  of  literary  produc¬ 
tions,  and  won  the  respect  and  friendship  of  Milman, 
Southey,  and  other  litterateurs. 

One  Saturday  afternoon,  the  day  before  Whit¬ 
sunday,  1819,  he  was  at  Wrexham  Vicarage  with 
his  father-in-law,  Dr.  Shipley,  Dean  of  Saint  Asaph. 
Dr.  Shipley  was  planning  to  preach  on  the  follow¬ 
ing  morning  a  sermon  in  aid  of  the  Society  for  the 
Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  Foreign  Parts,  and  in 
the  evening  Reginald  Heber  was  to  begin  a  series 
of  lectures  in  the  same  church.  As  they  sat  together 
with  some  friends  the  Dean  asked  him  to  write  a 
hymn  on  a  missionary  theme  to  be  sung  at  the  morn¬ 
ing  service.  After  Heber  had  retired  for  a  while 
he  returned  and  the  Dean  asked  him:  “What  have 
you  written?”  Heber  in  reply  read  the  first  three 
verses  of  “From  Greenland's  Icy  Mountains.”  The 
Dean  exclaimed  that  they  were  very  satisfactory. 
“No,  no,”  replied  Heber,  “the  sense  is  not  complete.” 
And  so  he  added  one  more  verse — “Waft,  waft,  ye 
winds,  His  story” — and  the  whole  hymn  was  sung 
the  next  morning  at  the  service. 


43 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


38*  €>  Eobe  HW  (Milt  &ot  Hit  m  <$o 

George  Matheson,  1842-1906 

Dr.  George  Matheson  was  one  of  the  most  be¬ 
loved  clergymen  in  the  Church  of  Scotland.  His 
writings  were  numerous  and  of  a  high  order.  But 
the  marvel  of  it  all  is  that  he  was  able  to  accom¬ 
plish  so  much  without  his  sight ;  for  from  the  age  of 
fifteen  he  was  totally  blind.  His  hymn,  beginning, 
“O  Love  that  wilt  not  let  me  go,”  was  sung  out  of 
his  blindness  and  gives  evidence  of  the  courage  with 
which  he  bore  his  great  affliction. 

His  own  story  of  how  he  came  to  write  the  hymn 
is  well  worth  quoting:  “My  hymn  was  composed  in 
the  manse  of  Innellan  on  the  evening  of  June  6, 
1882.  I  was  at  the  time  alone.  It  was  the  day  of 
my  sister’s  marriage,  and  the  rest  of  the  family 
were  staying  overnight  in  Glasgow.  Something  had 
happened  to  me,  which  was  known  only  to  myself ; 
and  which  caused  the  most  severe  mental  suffer¬ 
ing.  It  was  the  quickest  bit  of  work  I  ever  did  in 
my  life.  I  had  the  impression  rather  of  having  it 
dictated  to  me  by  some  inward  voice  than  of  work¬ 
ing  it  out  myself.” 

William  T.  Stead  quotes  this  letter  from  a  cor¬ 
respondent:  “At  a  time  of  great  spiritual  darkness, 
when  God,  Christ,  and  heaven  seemed  to  have  gone 
out  of  my  life,  .  .  .1  heard  this  hymn  sung  in  a 
little  country  chapel.  The  first  two  lines  haunted 
me  for  weeks,  and  at  last  brought  light  and  comfort 
to  my  dark  soul.” 


44 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


39.  J|2oto  CMf  ail  2D«t  (Bob 

Martin  Rinkart,  1586-1649 

The  Thirty  Years’  War  in  Germany  from  1618 
to  1648  devastated  the  land  and  inflicted  incredible 
hardships  on  a  long-suffering  people.  But  the 
German  Protestants  remained  true  to  their  faith 
and  bore  their  trials  bravely  for  conscience’  sake, 
at  last  winning  honorable  respite  from  their  suffer¬ 
ings  in  the  Peace  of  Westphalia,  October  24,  1648. 

Among  the  bravest  of  the  sufferers  from  the 
war  was  the  Rev.  Martin  Rinkart,  who  wrote  the 
hymn  originally  in  German,  “Now  Thank  We  All 
Our  God.”  It  is  generally  supposed  that  he  wrote 
it  as  a  Te  Deam  of  praise  because  of  the  restora¬ 
tion  of  peace  at  the  close  of  thirty  years  of  horrible 
strife. 

Catherine  Winkworth,  who  translated  this  hymn 
into  English,  once  wrote  of  him :  “So  great  were 
Rinkart’s  own  losses  and  charities  that  he  had  the 
utmost  difficulty  in  finding  bread  and  clothes  for 
his  children,  and  was  forced  to  mortgage  his  future 
income  for  several  years.  Yet  how  little  his  spirit 
was  broken  by  all  these  calamities  is  shown  by  this 
hymn  and  others  that  he  wrote ;  some,  indeed, 
speaking  of  his  own  country’s  sorrows,  but  all 
breathing  the  same  spirit  of  unbounded  trust  and 
readiness  to  give  thanks.” 

Rinkart  was  a  skilled  musician,  as  well  as  a  poet ; 
and,  besides,  he  wrote  seven  dramas  based  upon  the 
Restoration  Period  which  were  produced  at  the  one 
hundredth  anniversary  of  the  Reformation,  But 
he  is  best  known  to  posterity  through  his  hymns. 


45 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


40.  dSoIben  ItjarpsS  Site  SountHng 

Frances  Ridley  Havergal,  1836-1879 

Miss  Frances  Ridley  Havergal  was  the 
daughter  of  a  clergyman  of  the  Church  of  England, 
the  Rev.  W.  H.  Havergal.  He  was  both  musician 
and  hymn- writer;  and  his  gifted  daughter,  conse¬ 
crating  her  life  and  her  talents  to  the  Master,  wrote 
many  helpful  hymns,  setting  some  of  them  to  her 
own  music,  as  is  illustrated  by  the  hymn,  “Golden 
Harps  Are  Sounding.” 

Miss  Anne  Steele,  who  lived  and  wrote  some  of 
the  best  hymns  in  the  eighteenth  century,  frequently 
signed  her  hymns  with  the  name  “Theodosia.” 
Miss  Havergal  has  been  compared  with  Miss  Steele, 
and  is  sometimes  styled  “the  Theodosia  of  the  nine¬ 
teenth  century,”  so  influential  has  her  life  proved 
to  be  through  her  hymns  as  well  as  through  her 
many  other  good  works. 

The  Havergal  manuscripts  contain  the  following 
account  of  the  writing  of  this  hymn:  “When  visit¬ 
ing  at  Parry  Barr,”  Miss  Havergal  “walked  to  the 
boys’  schoolroom,  and  being  very  tired  she  leaned 
against  the  playground  wall  while  Mr.  Snepp  went 
in.  Returning  in  ten  minutes,  he  found  her  scrib¬ 
bling  on  an  old  envelope.  At  his  request  she  gave 
him  the  hymn  just  penciled,  ‘Golden  harps  are  sound¬ 
ing.’  Her  popular  tune,  ‘Hermas,’  was  composed 
for  this  hymn.” 

At  the  age  of  forty-two  she  died  at  Caswell  Bay, 
Swansea.  But  shortly  before  she  passed  away,  clos¬ 
ing  a  life  of  rare  usefulness  in  the  salvation  of  many 
souls,  she  gathered  up  her  strength  and  sang: 

“Golden  harps  are  sounding 
Angel  voices  ring, 

Pearly  gates  are  opened  .  . 


46 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


41.  (Butbe  St?e,  flD  ®I)o u  CBteat  3|egobali 

William  Williams,  1717-1791 

The  best  known  of  the  hymns  by  William  Wil¬ 
liams  was  originally  written  in  the  Welsh  language 
and  illustrates  some  of  the  characteristics  of  Welsh 
hymnody,  which  has  been  well  compared  in  its  sim¬ 
plicity  and  transparency  to  Hebrew  poetry.  In  its 
emotional  language  and  directness  of  appeal  it  relies 
more  upon  a  simple  expression  of  strong,  spiritual 
feeling  than  upon  the  niceties  of  artistic  law. 

The  author  of  this  hymn  came  to  be  popularly 
known  as  “the  Sweet  Singer  of  Wales.”  Coming 
under  the  influence  of  Daniel  Rowlands,  a  noted  re- 
.  7  vivalist,  he  devoted  his  life  to  evangelism  for  which 
he  was  well  fitted,  for  he  was  a  remarkable  singer 
and  a  powerful  preacher.  He  became  a  deacon  in 
the  Church  of  England,  but  never  took  higher  orders. 
His  first  hymn  book,  Hallelujah ,  was  published  in 
1744,  when  he  was  but  twenty-seven  years  old. 

This  hymn,  which  likens  life’s  progress  to  the 
journey  of  Israel  toward  the  Promised  Land,  was 
first  translated  into  English  by  the  Rev.  Peter  Wil¬ 
liams.  The  first  verse  of  this  translation  William 
Williams  adopted,  but  translated  two  other  verses 
himself,  adding  a  fourth  in  English,  “Musing  on 
Thy  habitation.” 

When  Richard  Knill,  the  missionary,  lay  dying  he 
frequently  sang  this  hymn,  and  its  comforting  assur¬ 
ance  dispelled  his  “anxious  fears.”  Toward  the  end 
he  called  his  daughter  and  said:  “I  cannot  sing. 
Sing  for  me  my  favorite  hymn.”  She  sang  it  to  the 
tune,  “Rousseau’s  Dream,”  and  whenever  she  came 
to  the  last  verse  he  would  try  his  best  to  join  in  those 
lines,  until  at  last  he  was  borne  “through  the  swell¬ 
ing  current”  and  landed  “safe  on  Canaan’s  shore.” 


47 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


42*  (Btben  tot 

(“I  gave  My  life  for  thee”) 

Frances  Ridley  Havergal,  1836-1879 

The  first  real  hymn  written  by  Miss  Havergal 
was  composed  when  she  was  but  a  month  past  her 
twenty-first  birthday.  On  January  10,  1858,  while 
visiting  in  Germany,  she  entered  the  study  of  a  Ger¬ 
man  minister.  Quite  tired,  she  sat  down  and  her 
eyes  lit  upon  an  inscription,  which  had  been  placed 
under  a  picture  of  Jesus  Christ :  “I  did  this  for  thee : 
what  hast  thou  done  for  Me?”  As  she  gazed  on  the 
face  of  the  suffering  Redeemer  the  lines  of  the 
hymn  framed  themselves  in  her  mind  and,  taking  a 
pencil,  she  wrote  them  on  the  back  of  a  circular. 
But  when  she  read  them  over  she  felt  that  they  ex¬ 
pressed  her  emotions  of  that  hour  so  inadequately 
that  she  exclaimed  to  herself :  “This  is  not  poetry. 
I  will  not  go  to  the  trouble  to  copy  this” ;  and  she 
crumpled  up  the  circular  and  cast  it  into  the  fire. 

But  immediately  something  impelled  her  to  rescue 
it,  and  she  seized  it,  singed  as  it  was  by  the  flame, 
and  a  moment  later  placed  it  in  her  pocket. 

A  short  time  afterward  she  called  upon  an  old 
woman  in  the  almshouse.  Miss  Havergal  tells  us : 
“She  began  to  talk  to  me,  as  she  always  did,  about 
her  dear  Saviour,  and  I  thought  I  would  see  if  the 
simple  old  woman  would  care  for  these  verses,  which 
I  felt  sure  nobody  else  would  care  to  read.  So  I 
read  them  to  her,  and  she  was  so  delighted  with  them 
that  when  I  went  back  I  copied  them  out,  and  kept 
them,  and  now  the  hymn  is  more  widely  known  than 
any.” 

Her  father,  the  Rev.  W.  H.  Havergal,  ever  since 
her  mother  died  when  Frances  was  eleven  years  old, 
had  been  her  confidant  and  had  encouraged  the  de¬ 
velopment  of  her  talents.  When  she  returned  home 
one  day  she  showed  these  verses  to  him.  He  was  so 
delighted  with  them  that  he  composed  a  tune,  called 

48 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


“Baca,”  for  this  hymn.  It  was  published  two  years 
later  in  a  leaflet.  Originally  her  first  line  was,  “I 
gave  My  life  for  thee.”  But  when  in  1871  it  was 
included  in  Church  Hymns,  she  was  induced  to 
change  the  line  to  its  present  form,  “Thy  life  was 
given  for  me.” 

Years  later  she  wrote :  “I  was  so  overwhelmed  on 
Sunday  at  hearing  three  of  my  hymns  touchingly 
sung  in  Perry  Church.  I  never  before  realized  the 
high  privilege  of  writing  for  the  ‘great  congregation,’ 
especially  when  they  sang  T  Gave  My  Life  for  Thee’ 
to  my  father’s  tune,  ‘Baca.’  ” 


49 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


43*  Come  flUnto  ge  (liHearg 

William  Chatterton  Dix,  1837-1898 

The  son  of  a  surgeon  in  Bristol,  England,  the 
author  of  this  hymn  was  educated  in  Bristol,  but 
achieved  his  business  success  in  Glasgow,  Scotland. 
He  was  active,  not  only  as  a  hymn-writer  and  a 
hymn-book  editor,  but  also  as  an  insurance  man — 
an  odd  combination !  Julian  mentions  twenty  of  his 
hymns  which  are  in  common  use.  None  of  them, 
however,  is  more  tenderly  beautiful  than  this  hymn, 
which  takes  as  its  theme  Christ’s  words,  “Come  unto 
Me  all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will 
give  you  rest.” 

It  was  a  pathetic  coincidence  when,  in  1862, 
Doctor  George  Washington  Bethune,  a  clergyman 
of  the  Dutch  Reformed  Church,  died  suddenly  on 
the  day  after  he  wrote  his  famous  hymn.  “When 
Time  Seems  Short  and  Death  Is  Near.”  But  it 
was  probably  more  than  a  mere  coincidence  that 
the  writing  of  this  hymn, 

Come  unto  Me,  ye  weary, 

And  I  will  give  you  rest, 

was  quickly  followed  by  the  recovery  of  Mr.  Dix 
from  an  illness.  He  has  told  the  story  in  his  own 
words : 

“I  was  ill  and  depressed  at  the  time,  and  it  was  al¬ 
most  to  idle  away  the  hours  that  I  wrote  the  hymn. 
I  had  been  ill  for  many  weeks,  and  felt  weary  and 
faint,  and  the  hymn  really  expresses  the  languid¬ 
ness  of  body  from  which  I  was  suffering  at  the 
time.  Soon  after  its  composition  I  recovered,  and 
I  always  look  back  to  that  hymn  as  the  turning 
point  in  my  illness.” 

The  hymn  has  brought  comfort  to  many  another 
weary  soul,  besides  its  author,  with  its  cheering  echo 
of  the  divine  promise  of  rest  from  oppression,  “Of 
pardon,  grace,  and  peace.” 

50 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


44.  Cflldconte,  Itjappp  Scorning*  age  to  age 

&t)aU  &ap 

Venantius  Honorius  Clementianus  Fortunatus,  530-609 
(Translated  by  John  Ellerton,  1826-1893) 

The  author  of  the  Latin  hymn,  “On  the  Resur¬ 
rection  of  the  Master,”  was  once  a  student  at  Ra¬ 
venna  in  his  youth  and  became  almost  blind  while 
pursuing  his  studies.  Praying  to  God  for  recovery 
of  his  sight,  he  anointed  his  eyes  with  oil  that  had 
been  brought  to  him  from  a  lamp  at  Saint  Martin’s 
altar  in  Tours,  and  his  sight  was  fully  restored.  In 
gratitude  for  what  he  regarded  as  a  miracle,  he  made 
the  long  pilgrimage  from  Ravenna  to  Tours  and 
worshiped  at  the  shrine  of  Saint  Martin..  This  led 
him  to  devote  the  rest  of  his  life  to  France.  At 
Poitiers  he  came  under  the  beneficent  influence  of 
the  pious  Queen  Rhadegunda,  who  induced  him  to 
become  ordained,  and  after  her  death  he  was  made 
Bishop  of  Poitiers. 

The  whole  poem,  from  a  part  of  which  the  English 
clergyman,  the  Rev.  John  Ellerton,  translated  this 
hymn,  was  one  hundred  and  ten  lines  long  and  was 
dedicated  to  Bishop  Felix  of  Nantes.  It  was  but 
one  of  many  poetical  works  which  fell  from  his  pen, 
among  the  best  known  being  “The  Royal  Banners 
Forward  Go,”  as  translated  by  Doctor  John  Mason 
Neale.  “Welcome,  Happy  Morning!”  expresses  elo¬ 
quently  the  intense  joy  which  Eastertime  brings  to 
every  age.  The  line,  “Tread  the  path  of  darkness,” 
gives  hint  of  the  blindness  of  Fortunatus  in  his 
youth,  while  the  last  verse  seems  to  sing  of  the 
miracle  which  released  him  from  that  darkness, 
“Bring  again  our  daylight :  day  returns  with  Thee.” 
Jerome  of  Prague  suffered  the  death  of  martyrdom 
in  being  burned  to  death  at  the  stake  on  May  30, 
1416.  As  the  flames  rose  about  him  he  sang  this 
ancient  hymn.  His  last  words  were:  “This  soul  in 
flames  I  offer,  Lord,  to  Thee.” 

5i 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


45.  &i)e{>!)etb  ot  'Henbet  gouts 

Clement  of  Alexandria  (circ.  170-220) 
(Translated  by  Henry  M.  Dexter,  1821-1890) 

To  Titus  Flavius  Clemens,  which,  according  to 
the  ancient  writer  Eusebius,  was  the  full  name  of 
Saint  Clement,  is  attributed  the  authorship  of  the 
“Hymn  of  the  Saviour,”  the  oldest  Christian  hymn 
in  existence.  Born  in  Athens,  he  studied  philosophy 
with  the  great  teachers  of  many  lands  and  became  a 
Stoic  and  an  Eclectic.  In  Alexandria  he  was  con¬ 
verted  to  Christianity  by  the  teaching  of  Pantsenus, 
then  at  the  head  of  the  great  Catechetical  School. 
When  Pantaenus  became  a  missionary  Clement  suc¬ 
ceeded  him  as  master  of  the  school,  190-203  A.  D.; 
and  among  those  to  whom  he  interpreted  the  divine 
“Shepherd  of  tender  youth”  were  the  famous  Origen 
and  Alexander,  who  was  later  Bishop  of  Jerusalem. 
In  after  years  persecution  drove  him  away  from 
Alexandria  and  little  is  known  of  the  rest  of  his 
life. 

About  the  end  of  the  second  century  he  wrote  this 
hymn  in  the  Greek  language,  and  in  its  original  form 
it  had  wide  use  in  the  Eastern  Church.  The  first 
line,  literally  translated,  is:  “Tamer  of  steeds  un¬ 
bridled”;  but  a  New  England  Congregational  clergy¬ 
man,  Doctor  Henry  M.  Dexter,  in  1848  softened  this 
phrase  into  the  line,  “Shepherd  of  tender  youth.” 
The  English  translation  of  this  hymn,  first  published 
in  The  Congregationalist,  December  21,  1849,  has 
found  an  important  place  among  the  Christian  hymns 
of  childhood  in  this  country  and  in  England. 
Doctor  Dexter  was  pastor  of  a  church  in  Man¬ 
chester,  New  Hampshire,  when  he  made  the  trans¬ 
lation;  in  1849  he  served  the  Berkeley  Street  Church 
in  Boston,  and  in  1867  became  editor  of  The  Con¬ 
gregationalist. 


52 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


40.  JFlung  to  tfje  WilmbS 

Martin  Luther,  1483-1546 

(Translated  by  John  Alexander  Messenger,  circ.  1840) 

Two  years  after  attending  the  Diet  of  Worms, 
1521,  “the  point  from  which”  (as  Macaulay  de¬ 
clares)  “modern  European  history  takes  its  rise,” 
Martin  Luther  wrote  his  first  hymn.  He  was  then, 
1523,  engaged  in  writing  a  German  translation  of  the 
Holy  Bible.  The  manner  in  which  he  was  being 
hounded,  maligned,  and  persecuted  by  the  Roman 
Catholic  Church  for  his  evangelical  teaching  and  his 
utter  contempt  of  ecclesiastical  authority  only 
stirred  his  independent  soul  to  greater  courage. 

When,  however,  two  monks,  Heinrich  Voes  and 
Johann  Esch  of  Antwerp,  were  tried  for  heresy  in 
Cologne,  and  on  June  30,  1523,  were  burned  to 
death  at  the  stake  in  Brussels,  his  heart  broke  forth 
into  “A  New  Song  of  the  Two  Martyrs  for  Christ, 
burnt  at  Brussels  by  the  Sophists  of  Louvain.” 
From  this  John  A.  Messenger  made  the  translation, 

Flung  to  the  heedless  winds, 

Or  on  the  waters  cast, 

The  martyrs’  ashes,  watched, 

Shall  gathered  be  at  last. 

It  has  been  said  that  Luther  had  in  mind  also  the 
martyrdom  of  John  Huss,  the  great  hero  of  the 
Czeeho-Slovakians,  who  was  persecuted  for  his  faith 
by  the  Roman  Catholic  clergy  and  finally  was  cited 
before  the  Council  of  Constance  and  was  burned  at 
the  stake  in  1414.  After  his  death  his  ashes  and  the 
earth  on  which  they  fell  were  cast  upon  the  waters 
of  the  Rhine  River.  While  he  was  being  burned  to 
death  so  great  was  his  fortitude  that  he  sang  the 
“Kyrie  Eleison,” — “Lord,  have  mercy  upon  us !” 


53 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


47.  Bt&olb  Hk  feiablout  of  Q^anftt'nb 

Samuel  Wesley,  1662-1735 

The  Rev.  Samuel  Wesley,  father  of  John  and 
Charles  Wesley,  was  Rector  of  Epworth,  in  Eng¬ 
land,  for  forty  years  until  his  death.  In  the  Ep¬ 
worth  Rectory  were  born  both  of  his  distinguished 
sons.  In  this  home  he  suffered  many  trials  and 
tribulations :  his  barn  was  blown  down,  the  rectory 
was  partly  burned  in  1703,  miscreants  by  night 
burned  his  flax  and  at  another  time  stabbed  his  three 
cows  which  helped  to  feed  his  numerous  family ;  and 
he  became  seriously  involved  in  debt  as  a  result  of 
these  and  other  misfortunes.  The  crowning  disaster 
was  the  complete  destruction  of  the  rectory  by  fire 
in  1709. 

Two  remarkable  rescues,  however,  were  made 
from  the  fire  which  yielded  momentous  results  in 
after  years.  One  was  the  saving  of  the  six-year- 
old  boy,  John,  who  had  been  caught  by  the  fire  on 
the  second  floor.  A  parishioner  by  standing  on  the 
shoulders  of  another  managed  to  reach  the  upper 
window,  seized  the  frightened  boy,  and  passed  him 
to  safety — that  boy  who  was  destined  to  be  the 
founder  of  the  great  Wesleyan  movement. 

The  other  rescue  was  effected  by  a  draft  of  wind 
that  carried  a  piece  of  paper  out  of  the  window 
to  a  distant  point  in  the  rectory  garden,  where  it  was 
found  after  the  fire — the  manuscript  of  this  hymn, 
written  the  day  before,  “Behold  the  Saviour  of  Man¬ 
kind,”  by  which  chiefly  Samuel  Wesley  is  known 
to  this  generation  as  a  hymn- writer.  Charles  Wes¬ 
ley  on  July  18,  1738,  used  the  hymn  as  a  means  of 
bringing  to  salvation  two  criminals  in  Newgate 
Prison,  condemned  to  die  the  very  next  day. 


54 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


48.  flDntoatb,  Cfjnstian  feolbirts 

Sabine  Baring-Gould,  1834- 

In  Yorkshire,  England,  where  Doctor  Baring- 
Gould  was  stationed  as  curate  of  Horbury,  it  is  the 
custom  to  observe  Whitmonday  as  a  day  of  festival 
for  the  school  children.  In  1865  his  school  was  in¬ 
vited  to  march  to  a  neighboring  village,  there  to  join 
the  children  of  another  school  in  the  festival  exer¬ 
cises.  As  he  could  not  find  a  suitable  hymn  for  the 
children  to  sing  while  marching  from  one  village  to 
another,  he  sat  up  late  into  the  night  to  compose 
a  hymn ;  and  out  of  those  midnight  hours  came  the 
lines,  “Onward,  Christian  soldiers,”  to  which  the 
children  marched  toward  their  festival  and  to  which 
hundreds  of  thousands  of  Christians  have  marched 
in  the  decades  since  it  was  written. 

With  the  cross  of  Jesus 
Going  on  before 

refers  to  the  cross,  borne  at  the  head  of  the  proces¬ 
sion  ;  while  the  many  banners,  following  it,  are  pic¬ 
tured  in  the  line,  “See  His  banners  go !” 

It  was  published  in  the  Church  Times  in  1865. 

The  hymn  with  its  stirring  tune,  written  later  by 
Sir  Arthur  Sullivan,  makes  an  ideal  processional  and 
has  been  widely  used,  not  only  in  places  of  worship, 
but  also  upon  a  great  variety  of  other  occasions.  Allan 
Sutherland,  in  Famous  Hymns  of  the  World,  de¬ 
scribes  the  wild  rejoicing  in  Philadelphia  on  election 
night,  1905,  when  to  signalize  the  victory  of  the 
Reform  Movement  thousands  paraded  the  streets, 
singing  this  hymn ;  also  its  use  in  cheering  Christian 
Japanese  soldiers,  starting  for  the  war  in  1904.  It 
was  the  battle  song  of  Roosevelt’s  Progressive  cam¬ 
paign  in  1912.  In  the  World  War  it  was  a  prime 
favorite,  and  was  sung  by  General  Feng  Yii  Hsiang’s 
Eleventh  Division  of  Chinese  Christian  soldiers  as 
they  advanced  to  battle  before  Peking  in  May,  1922, 

55 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


49.  ®tll  SDc  tfjc  C16,  flDlb  fetor? 

Katherine  Hankey  (1866) 

“I  Love  to  Tell  the  Story/’  and  that  other  equally 
popular  hymn  by  Miss  Hankey,  “Tell  Me  the  Old, 
Old  Story,”  are  both  centos  taken  from  a  long  poem 
on  the  life  of  Christ,  which  was  written  in  two  parts. 
Miss  Hankey,  the  daughter  of  a  banker,  was  taken 
seriously  ill  in  her  home  in  England,  and  for  a  long 
time  was  confined  to  her  bed.  At  last  the  malady 
subsided,  and  she  entered  upon  an  extended  period 
of  convalescence  through  the  months  of  1866. 

Grateful  to  her  Lord  and  Master  for  her  recovery 
and  for  the  story  of  salvation  “that  satisfies  my  long¬ 
ings,”  as  she  expressed  it,  she  made  the  long  days 
radiant  with  meditations  on  the  life  of  Jesus;  and 
out  of  these  meditations  wrote  a  long  poem  on  the 
story  of  His  life.  The  first  part,  which  was  begun 
in  January,  1866,  was  entitled  “The  Story  Wanted.” 
The  second  part,  which  was  completed  in  November 
of  that  same  year,  was  in  the  nature  of  a  sequel  to  the 
first  part,  as  is  implied  by  its  title,  “The  Story  Told.” 

It  is  said  that  the  year  after  it  was  written,  1867, 
the  composer,  Doctor  William  H.  Doane,  was  at¬ 
tending  the  International  Convention  of  the  Y.  M. 
C.  A.  then  being  held  in  Montreal,  and  when  Major 
General  Russell  read  the  lines,  “Tell  me  the  old,  old 
story,”  Doane  was  so  greatly  moved  that  he  secured 
a  copy  and  afterward  took  it  with  him  to  the  White 
Mountains,  where  he  composed  the  winsome  melody 
to  which  it  is  sung. 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


50*  Blood  and  IRtgjittottgneis# 

Count  Nicolaus  Ludwig  von  Zinzendorf,  1700-1760 
(Translated  by  John  Wesley,  1703-1791) 

Both  the  writer  and  the  translator  of  this  hymn 
went  to  America  as  missionaries  to  the  Indians  in 
the  early  part  of  the  eighteenth  century,  and  both  of 
them  led  religious  movements  which  resulted  in  the 
establishment  of  great  churches.  John  Wesley  be¬ 
came  the  founder  of  Methodism.  Count  Zinzen¬ 
dorf  is  known  as  the  second  founder  of  the  Mora¬ 
vian  Brethren’s  Unity.  To  the  Moravians,  hitherto 
persecuted  and  exiled,  he  gave  religious  freedom 
and  a  hospice  on  his  estate  at  Berthelsdorf  in  1722. 
There  under  his  guidance  they  reorganized  their 
church,  sent  foreign  missionaries  to  neglected  hea¬ 
then,  and  established  communities  in  distant  lands. 
One  of  these  was  the  famous  settlement  at  Bethle¬ 
hem,  Pennsylvania. 

In  1739,  when  the  Count  was  making  a  sea  voy¬ 
age  from  Saint  Thomas,  West  Indies,  he  wrote 
this  remarkable  hymn.  Although  as  a  boy  he  was 
educated  in  pietistic  teachings,  he  is  said  to  have 
been  converted  by  seeing  the  famous  painting, 
“Ecce  Homo,”  which  hangs  in  the  Diisseldorf  Gal¬ 
lery  and  pictures  the  bowed  head  of  Christ,  crowned 
with  thorns.  Perhaps  he  still  cherished  in  his  mem¬ 
ory  that  vision  of  the  Man  of  Sorrows,  when  in  this 
hymn  he  wrote  of  the  “holy,  meek,  unspotted  Lamb,” 
“Who  died  for  me,  e’en  me  t’  atone.” 

John  Wesley  owed  much  of  spiritual  inspiration 
to  the  doctrines  and  example  of  the  Moravian  Breth¬ 
ren,  whom  he  first  met  in  1735  on  his  missionary 
voyage  to  America ;  and  while  he  wrote  few  original 
English  hymns,  he  turned  to  the  Moravian  hymns  in 
German  for  a  fitting  expression  of  the  doctrines  he 
sought  to  emphasize,  and  translated  them  into  Eng¬ 
lish.  This  hymn  was  one  of  Wesley’s  first  trans¬ 
lations. 


57 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


51*  Cpeg  Ifabe  &tcn  t^t  CSlotg  ot  fye 

Coming:  of  tf)e  Eocd 

Julia  Ward  Howe,  1819-1910 

Chaplain  Charles  C.  McCabe,  afterwards  a 
bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  was  con¬ 
fined  in  Libby  Prison  during  a  part  of  the  Civil 
War.  In  his  famous  lecture  on  “The  Bright  Side 
of  Life  in  Libby  Prison,”  he  used  to  tell  this  story 
of  the  arrival  of  the  news  from  the  Battle  of  Gettys¬ 
burg  : 

“I  had  a  relative  in  Richmond,  a  stanch  rebel. 
The  day  they  received  the  first  tidings  from  Gettys¬ 
burg  he  came  to  see  me,  his  face  wreathed  in  smiles : 
‘Have  you  heard  the  news?’  ‘What  news?’  ‘Forty 
thousand  Yankee  prisoners  on  their  way  to  Rich¬ 
mond  !’  I  was  astounded !  In  dumb  amazement  I 
listened  to  the  Confederate  officers  speculating 
where  the  new  prisoners  should  be  stowed  away, 
and  how  they  were  to  be  fed.  I  went  upstairs  and 
told  the  news.  Despondency  settled  down  into  every 
heart. 

“That  night  as  we  assembled  for  ‘family  prayers’ 
and  sang,  as  was  always  our  wont  the  Long-meter 
Doxology,  it  trembled  out  from  quavering  voices  up 
to  Him  who  has  said,  ‘Glorify  Me  in  the  fires.’  I 
slept  none  that  night,  listening  wearily  to  the  watch 
calling  the  hours  and  singing  out  as  he  did  so,  ‘All’s 
well.’  When  the  day  broke  I  waited  for  the  foot¬ 
steps  of  ‘Old  Ben,’  a  character  well  known  to  every 
inmate  of  Libby.  He  was  the  prison  news  agent 
and  sold  papers  at  twenty-five  cents  apiece.  At  last 
his  footfall  came.  He  pushed  the  door  ajar,  looked 
around  for  a  moment  on  the  sleepers,  and  then 
raising  his  arms  he  shouted,  ‘Great  news  in  de 
papers !’ 

“Did  you  ever  see  a  resurrection?  I  never  did 
but  this  once.  O,  how  those  men  sprang  to  their 
feet!  And  what  was  the  news?  The  telegraph 

58 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


operator  at  Martinsburg,  when  putting  those  ciphers 
to  the  four,  had  clicked  the  instrument  once  too 
often.  There  was  a  mistake  of  thirty-six  thousand ! 
More  yet!  Lee  was  driven  back,  the  Potomac  was 
swollen,  the  pontoons  were  washed  away !  I  have 
stood  by  when  friends  long-parted  meet  again  with 
raining  tears  and  fond  embrace,  but  never  did  I 
witness  such  joy  as  swept  into  those  strong  men’s 
faces,  where  the  deepest  sorrow  sat  but  a  moment 
before.  Well,  what  did  we  do?  Why,  we  sang; 
sang  as  saved  men  do ;  sang  till  Captains  Flynn  and 
Sawyer,  immured  in  the  lowest  dungeons  below 
and  doomed  to  die  within  ten  days,  heard  us  and 
wondered ;  sang  till  the  very  walls  of  Libby  quivered 
in  the  melody  as  five  hundred  of  us  joined  in  the 
chorus  of  Mrs.  Julia  Ward  Howe’s  ‘Battle  Hymn  of 
the  Republic,’  ‘Mine  eyes  have  seen  the  glory  of  the 
coming  of  the  Lord.’  ” 

This  hymn  was  written  in  1861,  at  the  beginning 
of  the  Civil  war  in  the  United  States,  inspired  partly 
by  the  scene  of  troops  hurrying  from  the  North 
to  Southern  battlefields.  All  during  that  terrible 
struggle  it  was  the  great  war  song  of  the  Union 
armies.  During  the  recent  World  War  it  was  sung 
by  English-speaking  troops  from  both  sides  of  the 
Atlantic. 


59 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


52.  IlfifiuiS  &fjall  IRetgn  Mlljm’et  tfje  &un 

Isaac  Watts,  1674-1748 

Among  the  many  monuments  of  England’s  great¬ 
est  heroes  in  Westminster  Abbey,  London,  there 
stands  a  memorial  tablet  to  Doctor  Isaac  Watts,  upon 
which  the  poet  is  represented  with  pen  in  hand  writ¬ 
ing  at  a  table,  and  above  him  an  angel  is  whispering 
to  him  words  of  inspiration.  Thus  has  England 
honored  the  memory  of  the  father  of  modern  Eng¬ 
lish  hymns. 

His  missionary  hymn,  beginning,  “Jesus  shall 
reign  where’er  the  sun,”  has  been  used  the  world 
over  on  missionary  occasions.  It  was  originally 
entitled  “Christ’s  Kingdom  Among  the  Gentiles,” 
and  is  part  of  his  admirable  translation  of  the  second 
part  of  the  seventy-second  psalm. 

Probably  no  instance  of  its  use  has  been  more 
dramatic  than  when  it  was  sung  in  one  of  the  South 
Sea  Islands  in  1862.  The  conversion  of  the  South 
Sea  Islanders  from  cannibalism  to  Christianity  is 
one  of  the  most  brilliant  pages  in  the  history  of  mis¬ 
sionary  conquest.  One  of  the  tribal  kings  had  been 
with  many  of  his  people  converted  to  Christianity, 
and  he  decided  to  proclaim  a  Christian  constitution 
for  his  government.  Accordingly,  he  set  apart  a 
certain  day  for  the  final  ceremony.  Over  five  thou¬ 
sand  natives  of  the  islands  of  Tonga,  Fiji,  and 
Samoa  were  present,  rescued  from  the  savagery  of 
heathenism ;  and  during  the  ceremony  they  all  united 
their  voices  in  singing : 

“Jesus  shall  reign  where’er  the  sun 
Does  His  successive  journeys  run.” 


60 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


53.  £cab,  lUnblg  £isf)t,  fltttib  tf)’  Cntittlins 

(Bloom 

John  Henry  Newman,  1801-1890 

This  prayer-hymn,  cast  in  high  poetic  form,  was 
penned  by  John  Henry  Newman,  afterward  a  car¬ 
dinal  in  the  Roman  Catholic  Church,  while  on  ship¬ 
board  on  Sunday,  June  16,  1833.  It  is  said  that  the 
ship  had  been  compelled  to  proceed  slowly  because 
of  the  dense  fog  that  encompassed  it.  Doctor  New¬ 
man  was  returning  to  Marseilles,  France,  from  a 
visit  he  had  made  to  Italy.  While  in  Sicily  he  was 
taken  seriously  ill  and  on  his  recovery  he  waited  for 
his  ship  in  Palermo  for  three  weeks. 

Probably  both  of  these  facts  entered  somewhat 
into  the  imagery  of  the  hymn,  as  is  evidenced  by 
such  phrases  as  “th’  encircling  gloom”  and  “The 
night  is  dark,  and  I  am  far  from  home.” 

The  thought  and  sentiment  of  the  hymn,  how¬ 
ever,  were  wrought  out  of  the  mental  darkness  in 
which  Newman  was  then  groping.  Some  time  be¬ 
fore,  he  wrote  this  note:  “Now  in  my  room  in 
Oriel  College,  slowly  advancing,  etc.,  and  led  on  by 
God’s  hand  blindly,  not  knowing  whither  he  is  tak¬ 
ing  me.”  This  darkness,  beclouding  his  faith,  had 
become  still  deeper  during  the  summer  of  his  Italian 
journey,  during  which  he  wrote  “Lead,  Kindly 
Light.”  But  the  expression  of  his  supreme  trust  in 
God,  which  shines  through  these  lines,  so  universally 
popular,  has  helped  many  a  soul  that  has  yearned  for 
guidance  “amid  th’  encircling  gloom.” 


61 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


54.  ©entle  HtjSug,  anti  9i?tHi 

Charles  Wesley,  1707-1788 

John  B.  Gough  with  a  friend  one  day  went  up  to 
a  small  garret  room.  A  feeble  voice  said,  “Come 
in !”  and  they  entered.  Through  the  gloom  they  saw 
a  boy,  ten  years  old,  lying  on  a  heap  of  chips. 
“What  are  you  doing  there?”  they  asked.  “Hush!” 
he  replied ;  “I  am  hiding.”  As  he  showed  his 
bruised  and  swollen  arms,  he  added:  “Poor  father 
got  drunk  and  beat  me  because  I  would  not  steal. 
.  .  .  Once  I  went  to  ragged  school  and  they  taught 
me  ‘Thou  shalt  not  steal,’  and  told  me  about  God  in 
heaven.  I  will  not  steal,  sir,  if  my  father  kills  me.” 

The  friend  said:  “I  don’t  know  what  to  do  with 
you.  Here’s  a  shilling.  I  will  see  what  we  can  do 
for  you.”  The  boy  looked  at  it  a  minute,  and  then 
said:  “But  please,  sir,  wouldn’t  you  like  to  hear  my 
little  hymn?”  They  marveled  that  a  lad  suffering 
from  cold  and  hunger  and  bruises  could  sing  a 
hymn ;  but  they  answered :  “Yes,  we  will  hear  you.” 
And  then  in  a  low,  sweet  voice  he  sang,  “Gentle 
Jesus,  meek  and  mild.”  At  the  conclusion  he  said: 
“That’s  my  little  hymn.  Good-by.” 

Next  morning  they  mounted  the  stairs  again, 
knocking  at  the  door,  but  there  came  no  answer. 
They  opened  the  door  and  went  in.  The  shilling 
lay  on  the  floor,  and  there  too  lay  the  boy — dead, 
but  with  a  brave  smile  on  his  face.  His  “Gentle 
Jesus”  had  taken  him  home  to  heaven. 


62 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


55.  3n  tSe  Ct 060  of  Cl)tis3t  3  (ISlotg 

John  Bowring,  1792-1872 

Among  the  hymn-writers  represented  in  our 
hymnals  are  to  be  found  a  shoemaker,  a  prisoner  in 
bondage,  an  editor,  several  bishops  and  a  cardinal, 
a  converted  slave-trader,  a  lawyer,  a  blind  woman, 
a  student,  and  a  college  professor.  None,  however, 
bore  a  greater  distinction,  or  won  higher  fame  in  the 
public  life  of  a  statesman,  than  did  Sir  John  Bow- 
ring.  He  represented  the  English  government  in 
France  at  one  time.  Later  he  was  consul  to  Hong¬ 
kong,  and  afterward  governor  of  Hongkong.  He 
became  a  great  factor  in  the  political  development  of 
the  Orient.  Twice  he  was  a  member  of  the  British 
Parliament  and  was  knighted  in  1854.  Besides  his 
distinctions  in  statecraft,  he  won  high  literary  honors 
and  was  the  master  of  thirteen  different  languages, 
having  made  translations  from  all  of  them  into 
English. 

In  spite  of  all  these  great  earthly  successes,  and 
in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  was  a  Unitarian  by  faith, 
he  humbled  himself  before  the  cross  of  Jesus  Christ 
and  uttered  his  faith  in  the  striking  word-picture  of 
this  hymn : 

In  the  cross  of  Christ  I  glory, 

Towering  o’er  the  wrecks  of  time. 

He  lived  to  be  over  eighty  years  old,  writing  other 
famous  hymns,  among  them  our  well-known  mis¬ 
sionary  hymn,  “Watchman,  Tell  Us  of  the  Night.” 
At  length  he  died  in  1872  at  Exeter,  his  birthplace; 
and  upon  his  tombstone  you  may  read  the  inscrip¬ 
tion,  “In  the  cross  of  Christ  I  glory.” 


63 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


56*  GDtt  in  danger,  <3Dtt  in  dflloe 

Henry  Kirke  White,  1785-1806 
Frances  Sara  (Fuller-Maitland)  Colquhoun,  1809-1877 

Two  authors  are  responsible  for  the  hymn,  “Oft 
in  Danger,  Oft  in  Woe.”  The  first  verse  was  writ¬ 
ten  by  a  young  man,  Henry  Kirke  White,  who  died 
October  19,  1806,  while  still  a  student  in  Saint  John’s 
College,  Cambridge  University.  The  other  verses 
were  written  by  a  fourteen-year-old  girl,  Frances 
Sara  Fuller-Maitland,  who  successfully  carried  the 
spirit  of  White's  fragmentary  lines  into  the  subse¬ 
quent  verses,  first  published  by  her  mother,  Mrs. 
Bertha  Fuller-Maitland,  in  1827. 

White  was  born  in  Nottingham,  England,  March 
21,  1785.  Not  wanting  to  become  a  butcher,  like 
his  father,  he  became  apprenticed  to  a  weaver  when 
only  fourteen  years  old,  afterward  entering  a  law 
office.  His  genius  as  a  poet  began  to  blossom  while 
he  was  still  a  boy.  A  book  of  his  poems  that  he 
published  at  the  age  of  seventeen  showed  that  he 
had  become  irreligious. 

A  dear  friend  of  his,  named  Almond,  had  become 
a  Christian,  and  told  White  that  they  could  no  longer 
associate  together,  because  of  White’s  scorn  of  the 
Christian  life.  This  hurt  White  so  deeply  that  he 
exclaimed :  “You  surely  think  worse  of  me  than  I 
deserve !”  But  Almond’s  courageous  stand  brought 
White  to  his  senses,  and  gradually  the  young  poet 
realized  his  lost  condition  and  found  his  way  to 
the  Saviour  of  mankind.  The  story  of  his  struggle 
toward  the  light  is  pictured  in  his  hymn,  “When 
Marshaled  on  the  Nightly  Plain.”  After  his  death 
in  college  they  found  on  some  mathematical  papers 
his  lines,  beginning,  “Much  in  sorrow,  oft  in  woe.” 


64 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


57.  St?g  Counttg,  ’'CiS  of 

Samuel  Francis  Smith,  1808-1895 

A  student,  twenty-three  years  old,  studying  in 
Andover  Theological  Seminary  for  the  Baptist  min¬ 
istry,  wrote  the  American  national  hymn  in  less  than 
a  half  hour  on  the  second  day  of  February,  1832. 
His  name  was  Samuel  F.  Smith,  the  author  also 
of  “The  Morning  Light  is  Breaking/’  The  words 
were  in  part  inspired  by  the  tune  we  call  “America,” 
which  he  had  found  in  a  German  collection  of  songs 
loaned  to  him  shortly  before  by  Lowell  Mason,  that 
master  editor  of  hymn-books  in  the  early  nineteenth 
century.  Mason  had  secured  the  book  from  Wil¬ 
liam  C.  Woodbridge. 

Authorities  have  disagreed  as  to  where  the  tune 
came  from — whether  Saxony,  Russia,  Sweden,  or 
England,  in  all  of  which  countries  it  has  been  popu¬ 
larly  sung  to  patriotic  words.  Because  of  its  strik¬ 
ing  similarity  to  certain  ancient  tunes,  it  has  been 
claimed  by  various  writers  to  have  come  from  an 
old  French  tune  or  a  still  older  Scottish  carol.  The 
probabilities  are — and  on  this  most  editors  agree  to¬ 
day — that  the  first  man  to  write  the  tune  in  nearly 
its  present  form  was  Henry  Carey,  an  English  com¬ 
poser,  who  lived  from  1685  until  1743.  Once  when 
regret  was  expressed  to  Dr.  Smith  that  his  Ameri¬ 
can  national  hymn  is  sung  to  the  same  tune  as  the 
British  hymn,  he  replied:  “I  do  not  share  this  re¬ 
gret.  On  the  contrary,  I  deem  it  a  new  and  beauti¬ 
ful  bond  of  union  between  the  mother  country  and 
her  daughter.”  The  hymn  was  first  sung  July  4, 
1832,  at  a  children’s  patriotic  celebration  in  Boston. 


65 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


58.  SD  feag,  Can  got!  fete  fig  tf)t  SDaton’0  (Eatlg 

iigSt 

Francis  Scott  Key,  1779-1843 

Francis  Scott  Key,  author  of  the  “Star- 
Spangled  Banner,”  was  born  at  Double  Pipe  Creek, 
Maryland,  on  the  estate  of  his  father,  John  Ross 
Key,  an  officer  in  the  Revolutionary  War.  He  was 
educated  at  Saint  John's  College,  practiced  law  at 
Frederick,  Maryland,  and  for  three  terms  served 
as  district  attorney  at  Georgetown  in  the  District  of 
Columbia  under  President  Andrew  Jackson. 

During  the  War  of  1812  with  England,  Key  vis¬ 
ited  the  British  ship,  “Minden,”  in  order  to  secure 
the  release  of  some  of  the  prisoners,  one  of  them 
being  his  friend,  Doctor  William  Beanes,  of  Upper 
Marlboro,  Maryland.  Merely  because  of  his  sym¬ 
pathy  with  the  American  cause,  Doctor  Beanes  was 
held  by  the  British.  Key  was  successful  in  getting 
the  prisoners  released.  But  just  as  they  were  all 
about  to  depart,  the  British  decided  not  to  let  them 
go  that  night  because  of  the  attack  about  to  be  made 
upon  Baltimore.  Accordingly,  they  were  taken  on 
board  the  frigate  “Surprise”  and  carried  up  the 
Patapsco  River  to  their  own  vessel,  which  was  kept 
under  guard,  lest  they  escape  and  give  away  in¬ 
formation  to  their  fellow  countrymen.  During  the 
battle  between  the  ships  and  the  forts  their  anxiety 
was  intense.  And  as  Key  walked  the  deck,  eagerly 
awaiting  the  dawn,  which  should  tell  him  whether 
or  not  over  Fort  McHenry  the  flag  was  still  there, 
he  wrote  on  the  back  of  a  letter : 

“O  say,  can  you  see  by  the  dawn’s  early  light, 

What  so  proudly  we  hailed  at  the  twilight’s  last 
gleaming?” 

On  the  rowboat  that  bore  him  shoreward  in  the 
morning  he  completed  the  song  now  so  famous. 


66 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


59.  fetitgalem  tfje  CSolbtn 

Bernard  of  Cluny,  12th  Century 

The  pious  monk,  now  known  as  Bernard  of 
Cluny,  was  born  in  the  twelfth  century  in  Morlaix, 
France;  and  upon  maturity  dedicated  himself  to 
the  service  of  God  in  the  Abbey  of  Cluny.  Whether 
or  not  he  was  named  after  Saint  Bernard  of  Clair- 
vaux,  as  some  suppose,  it  is  known  that  he  was 
much  younger  than  the  author*  of  “Jesus,  the  Very 
Thought  of  Thee.”  From  within  the  cloistered 
walls  of  the  Abbey  the  godly  man  looked  out  upon 
the  world  about  him,  and  was  sick  at  heart  to  see  so 
much  worldliness  and  sin  in  the  life  of  the  people 
of  his  day. 

As  he  meditated  upon  this  sad  condition,  which 
weighed  so  heavily  upon  his  soul,  he  wrote  in  the 
Latin  language  a  great  poem  of  three  thousand 
lines,  entitled,  “Concerning  a  Disdain  of  the 
World.”  While  it  is  largely  a  satire  upon  the  sinful 
age,  and  warns  against  the  wrath  to  come,  the  poem 
by  way  of  contrast  contains  the  most  exalted  pas¬ 
sages,  expressing  the  poet’s  eager  contemplation  of 
the  glorious  life  awaiting  the  blessed  in  heaven. 
Doctor  John  Mason  Neale,  an  English  clergyman 
and  scholar,  has  made  exquisite  translations  into 
English  from  these  lines  upon  heaven,  and  from 
his  translations,  among  others,  has  been  taken  our 
stirring  hymn,  “Jerusalem,  the  Golden.”  It  has 
been  called  the  “Hymn  of  heavenly  homesickness,” 
as  it  expresses  so  tenderly  the  yearning  of  the  de¬ 
vout  soul  for  “that  sweet  and  blessed  country.” 


67 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


60.  flD  tot  a  tc&oussanb  'tCongucss  to  &ing 

Charles  Wesley,  1707-1788 

Charles  Wesley,  the  greatest  hymn-writer  in 
Methodist  history,  wrote  over  six  thousand  hymns, 
some  of  which  have  attained  the  first  rank  in  Eng¬ 
lish  hymnody.  He  and  his  brother,  John  Wesley, 
admitted  that  they  made  more  converts  through 
their  hymns  than  through  their  preaching. 

Charles  Wesley  usually  celebrated  each  anniver¬ 
sary  of  his  birthday  by  writing  a  hymn  of  praise  to 
God.  Little  wonder,  therefore,  that  the  first  anni¬ 
versary  of  his  conversion,  his  spiritual  birthday, 
should  be  celebrated  by  one  of  the  most  helpful 
hymns  in  use  among  Methodists.  The  opening  line 
of  the  hymn,  “O  for  a  thousand  tongues  to  sing,” 
is  reminiscent  of  a  remark  of  praise  to  God,  once 
uttered  to  Wesley  by  Peter  Bohler:  “Had  I  a  thou¬ 
sand  tongues,  I  would  praise  Him  with  them  all.” 

When  Charles  Wesley  was  converted  he  had  been 
ill  in  bed  for  some  time,  and  the  fear  of  death  had 
often  come  to  his  mind.  On  Sunday,  May  21, 
1738,  his  brother  and  some  friends  came  in  and 
sang  a  hymn.  After  they  went  out  he  prayed  alone 
for  some  time.  In  his  journal  we  read:  “I  was 
composing  myself  to  sleep  in  quietness  and  peace 
when  I  heard  one  come  in  and  say,  Tn  the  name  of 
Jesus  of  Nazareth,  arise,  and  believe,  and  thou  shalt 
be  healed  of  all  thine  infirmities.’  The  words  struck 
me  to  the  heart.  I  lay  musing  and  trembling.  With 
a  strange  palpitation  of  heart,  I  said,  yet  feared  to 
say,  T  believe,  I  believe  P  ”  These  memories  he  has 
woven  into  that  wonderful  third  verse  of  the  hymn : 

Jesus!  the  name  that  charms  our  fears, 

That  bids  our  sorrows  cease; 

Tis  music  in  the  sinner’s  ears, 

’Tis  life,  and  health,  and  peace. 


68 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


6L  Salute  llfappg 

S^onttnu 

John  Byrom,  1692-1763 

The  happy  morning  of  Christmas,  the  happiest 
of  the  whole  year,  is  associated  with  the  giving  of 
presents  in  token  of  the  gifts  borne  by  the  three 
Wise  Men  of  the  East  to  the  manger  cradle.  Doctor 
John  Byrom,  an  English  physician,  who  afterward 
became  famous  by  inventing  a  system  of  shorthand, 
was  an  occasional  contributor  to  the  famous  Spec¬ 
tator  under  the  nom  de  plume  “John  Shadow/’ 
He  was  especially  gifted  in  writing  poems  that  re¬ 
flected  his  kindly  and  happy  nature. 

One  day  in  1745  as  Christmas  was  approaching 
he  told  his  favorite  daughter,  Dolly  Byrom,  that  he 
was  making  a  Christmas  present  for  her.  When 
Christmas  morning  arrived  he  handed  to  her  an 
envelope  addressed  to  her.  When  she  opened  it,  she 
found  therein  a  poem  for  Christmas  morning,  writ¬ 
ten  by  her  father,  dedicated  to  her,  and  entitled 
“Christmas  Day  for  Dolly/’  Little  did  either  of 
them  dream  on  that  morning  that  those  joyous  lines 
would  live  and  be  sung  for  centuries  to  help  glad¬ 
den  other  Christmas  mornings  for  generations  yet 
unborn.  The  manuscript  of  the  hymn  was  pre¬ 
served  in  the  Byrom  family  for  a  hundred  years. 
It  is  now  one  of  the  treasures  of  the  Chetham’s 
Hospital,  Manchester,  England. 

For  the  boys  in  this  hospital  Byrom  wrote  a  num¬ 
ber  of  hymns  at  various  times,  and  once  he  declared 
that  he  would  rather  do  that  than  be  poet  laureate 
to  Frederick  the  Second.  After  his  death  his  poems 
were  collected  and  the  posthumous  volume,  Poems, 
&c.,  was  published  in  1773.  His  complete  Works 
were  published  in  1814. 


69 


/ 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


62*  TU  pta i&t  Skater,  mm t  3Pbe  Breath 

Isaac  Watts,  1674-1748 

This  hymn,  over  two  centuries  old,  was  written 
as  a  metrical  version  of  the  146th  Psalm,  “While  I 
live  will  I  praise  the  Lord,”  and  was  first  published 
by  Isaac  Watts  in  1719,  under  the  title,  “Praise  to 
God  for  His  Goodness  and  Truth”  in  his  Psalms  of 
David,  &c.  Seventeen  years  later  John  Wesley, 
then  a  missionary  to  America,  was  so  fond  of  the 
hymn  that  he  included  it  in  his  first  hymn  book, 
Psalms  and  Hymns,  1736-37,  and  in  later  years  used 
it  in  others  of  his  books. 

This  partiality  for  the  hymn  lasted  throughout 
Wesley’s  life.  Watts  originally  wrote  “I’ll  praise 
my  Maker  with  my  breath,”  but  Wesley  altered  this 
and  one  other  line.  Hymnologists  disagree  as  to 
the  desirability  of  the  changes  Wesley  made.  Doctor 
C.  S.  Robinson  declared  that  they  “were  not  for 
the  better,  and  have  only  served  to  confuse  the 
forms  in  which  it  appears.”  Doctor  John  Julian, 
editor  of  the  monumental  Dictionary  of  Hym- 
nology,  states,  however,  that  “the  more  popular  ar¬ 
rangement,  which  is  in  extensive  use  in  all  English- 
speaking  countries,  is  that  by  J.  Wesley.” 

Wesley  gave  out  this  hymn  just  before  preaching 
for  the  last  time  in  City  Road  Chapel,  Tuesday 
evening,  February  22,  1791.  The  following  Mon¬ 
day  afternoon,  though  very  ill,  he  amazed  the 
friends  at  his  bedside  by  singing  the  hymn  through¬ 
out  in  a  strong  voice.  The  next  night,  his  biog¬ 
rapher,  Tyerman,  tells  us,  he  tried  scores  of  times 
to  repeat  the  hymn,  but  could  only  say  “I’ll  praise 

— I’ll  praise - .”  And  with  praise  for  his  Maker 

on  his  lips  and  in  his  heart  he  passed  to  that  life 
where  “immortality  endures.” 


70 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


63.  Steak  Hfioa  tfje  Steab  ot  JLite 

Mary  Ann  Lathbury,  1841-1913 

The  great  institution  known  as  Chautauqua, 
founded  by  Lewis  Miller  and  Doctor  John  H.  Vin¬ 
cent,  afterward  bishop  of  the  Methodist  Episcopal 
Church,  held  its  first  assembly  on  the  shores  of  Lake 
Chautauqua  in  the  northwest  part  of  New  York 
State  under  a  resolution  of  the  Sunday  School 
Board,  adopted  in  October,  1873.  The  formal  open¬ 
ing  was  held,  August  4,  1874.  From  a  small  begin¬ 
ning  it  has  developed  into  a  great  center  for  culture, 
religious  and  intellectual;  and  from  this  source 
streams  of  helpful  influence  have  poured  out  into 
our  national  life  through  the  Chautauqua  Literary 
and  Scientific  Circles  and  the  ten  thousand  assem¬ 
blies  that  are  annually  held  in  this  country  under 
the  name  of  Chautauqua. 

Doctor  Jesse  Lyman  Hurlbut,  historian  of  Chau¬ 
tauqua,  writes  r1 

“In  Doctor  Vincent’s  many-sided  nature  was  a 
strain  of  poetry,  although  I  do  not  know  that  he 
ever  wrote  a  verse.  Yet  he  always  looked  at  life 
and  truth  through  poetic  eyes.  Who  otherwise 
would  have  thought  of  songs  for  Chautauqua  and 
called  upon  a  poet  to  write  them?  Doctor  Vincent 
found  in  Mary  A.  Lathbury  a  poet  who  could  com¬ 
pose  fitting  verses  for  the  expression  of  the  Chau¬ 
tauqua  spirit.” 

In  1885  she  was  the  founder  of  the  Look-up 
Legion,  based  on  the  motto  of  the  Henry  Wads¬ 
worth  Club  in  Edward  Everett  Hale’s  “Ten  Times 
One  Is  Ten.”  In  1875  she  wrote  her  first  song  for 
Chautauqua,  and  in  1877  penned  this  hymn  as  a 
study  song  for  the  Normal  Classes  at  Chautauqua. 
“Beside  the  sea”  suggests  the  place,  and  “the  bread 
of  life”  the  purpose,  of  their  Bible  study. 

'From  “The  Story  of  Chautauqua”  by  Dr.  J.  L.  Hurlbut.  Courtesy 
of  G.  P.  Putnam’s  Sons,  Publishers,  New  York  and  London, 

7l 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


64*  W&ttt  a  Hanti  of  put t  SDdigJt 

Isaac  Watts,  1674-1748 

Isaac  Watts  was  born  in  Southampton  on  the 
southern  coast  of  England.  At  the  time  of  his  birth 
his  father,  a  staunch  Nonconformist,  was  in  prison 
because  of  his  religious  beliefs.  So  firm  was  he 
in  his  faith  that  he  suffered  himself  to  be  again 
imprisoned  for  the  same  reason,  while  his  son,  Isaac, 
was  still  an  infant.  As  the  boy  grew  older  he  was 
educated  in  the  classics  by  the  Rector  of  All  Saints 
in  Southampton,  and  gave  such  promise  of  a  bril¬ 
liant  future  that  a  Southampton  doctor  promised  to 
send  him  to  the  university  if  he  would  promise  to 
become  ordained  as  a  clergyman  in  the  Church  of 
England.  But  he  refused  and  for  four  years  at¬ 
tended  a  Nonconformist  Academy  in  Stoke  New¬ 
ington,  afterward  returning  to  Southampton  for  two 
years. 

During  those  two  years  in  Southampton  he  wrote 
most  of  the  early  hymns  which  are  embodied  in  his 
famous  book,  Hymns  and  Spiritual  Songs.  From 
the  windows  of  his  home  at  Southampton  there  ex¬ 
tended  a  beautiful  view  which  the  young  man  loved. 
Across  Southampton  water  were  seen  the  green 
fields  of  the  Isle  of  Wight;  and  one  day  this  fair 
prospect  turned  his  thoughts  toward  the  beauties  of 
the  heavenly  land  and  inspired  him  to  write,  “There 
Is  a  Land  of  Pure  Delight.”  The  sea  in  the  fore¬ 
ground  suggested  the  lines, 

Death  like  a  narrow  sea  divides 
This  heavenly  land  from  ours, 

while  the  summer  verdure  of  the  Isle  of  Wight 
gave  to  him  the  picture, 

Sweet  fields  beyond  the  swelling  flood 
Stand  dressed  in  living  green. 


72 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


65.  Strong  Son  of  (Bob,  Immortal  Eobe 

Alfred,  Lord  Tennyson,  1809-1892 

Like  the  friendship  of  David  and  Jonathan  was 
the  bond  of  intimacy  between  the  poet  Tennyson 
and  his  friend  at  Cambridge  University,  Arthur  H. 
Hallam.  A  son  of  the  famous  historian,  young 
Hallam  showed  unusual  promise,  and  in  his  intellec¬ 
tual  breadth,  as  well  as  in  his  capacity  for  friendly 
affection,  he  made  an  ideal  companion  for  Tenny¬ 
son.  They  became  the  dearest  of  friends,  and  when 
Arthur  fell  in  love  with  the  poet’s  younger  sister, 
Emilia,  the  bonds  of  friendship  were  strengthened. 

In  the  summer  of  1830  Tennyson  and  Hallam 
made  a  journey  together  through  the  French  Pyre¬ 
nees.  Three  years  later  Hallam  died  in  Vienna, 
and  “to  the  heart  of  one  man,”  as  Doctor  Henry 
van  Dyke  expresses  it,1  “it  was  the  shock  of  an  in¬ 
ward  earthquake,  upheaving  the  foundations  of  life 
and  making  the  very  arch  of  heaven  tremble.  .  .  . 
Tennyson  felt  his  loss  in  the  inmost  fibers  of  his 
being.  The  world  was  changed,  darkened,  filled 
with  secret  conflicts.  The  importunate  questions  of 
human  life  and  destiny  thronged  upon  his  soul. 
The  ideal  peace,  the  sweet,  art-satisfied  seclusion, 
the  dreams  of  undisturbed  repose,  became  impos¬ 
sible  for  him.  He  must  fight,  not  for  a  party  cause, 
but  for  spiritual  freedom  and  immortal  hopes.” 

Out  of  this  sorrow  came  Tennyson’s  wonderful 
elegy,  “In  Memoriam,”  first  published  in  1850,  in 
which  he  immortalized  the  friend  of  his  youth,  and 
gave  to  the  world  the  highest  expression  of  his  own 
thought  and  the  finest  art  of  his  poetic  genius. 
From  the  third,  fourth,  and  fifth  stanzas  of  the  pro¬ 
logue  of  “In  Memoriam”  this  hymn  was  taken. 

1  From  "The  Poetry  of  Tennyson,”  by  Henry  van  Dyke.  Charles 
Scribner’s  Sons,  Publishers. 


73 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


66.  Eotb,  31  I^tat  of  S&otoftjS  of  ©lessens 

Elizabeth  Codner 

The  author,  a  mission  worker  in  London,  tells 
this  story  of  the  origin  of  her  hymn : 

“A  party  of  young  friends  over  whom  I  was 
watching  with  anxious  hope  attended  a  meeting  in 
which  details  were  given  of  a  revival  work  in  Ire¬ 
land.  They  came  back  greatly  impressed.  My  fear 
was  lest  their  own  fleece  remain  dry,  and  I  pressed 
upon  them  the  privilege  and  responsibility  of  getting 
a  share  in  the  outpoured  blessing.  On  the  Sunday 
following,  not  being  well  enough  to  get  out,  I  had 
a  time  of  quiet  communion.  Those  children  were 
still  on  my  heart,  and  I  longed  to  press  upon  them 
an  earnest  individual  appeal.  Without  effort  words 
seemed  to  be  given  to  me,  and  they  took  the  form 
of  a  hymn,”  which  as  it  was  passed  from  one  to 
another  of  the  young  people,  “became  a  word  of 
power.” 

Years  later  E.  P.  Hammond  sent  to  her  this  let¬ 
ter  which  he  had  received: 

“Thank  you  for  singing  me  that  hymn,  ‘Even 
Me,’  for  it  was  the  singing  of  that  hymn  that  saved 
me.  I  was  a  lost  woman,  a  wicked  mother.  I  have 
stolen  and  lied  and  been  so  bad  to  my  dear,  innocent 
children.  Friendless,  I  attended  your  inquiry  meet¬ 
ing;  but  no  one  came  to  me  because  of  the  crowd. 
But  on  Saturday  afternoon,  at  the  First  Presby¬ 
terian  Church,  when  they  all  sang  that  hymn  to¬ 
gether,  those  beautiful  words,  ‘Let  some  drops  now 
fall  on  me/  and  also  those,  ‘Blessing  others,  O  bless 
me,’  it  seemed  to  reach  my  very  soul.  I  thought, 
‘Jesus  can  accept  me — “Even  Me,”  ’  and  it  brought 
me  to  His  feet,  and  I  feel  the  burden  of  sin  re¬ 
moved.  Can  you  wonder  that  I  love  those  words 
and  I  love  to  hear  them  sung?” 


7  4 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


67.  ©  legfujS,  Htfou  art  Sitanblng 

Bishop  William  Walsham  How,  1823-1897 

The  author  of  many  theological  works,  Bishop 
How,  of  the  Church  of  England,  is  to-day  remem¬ 
bered  by  the  great  hymns  which  he  gave  to  the 
Christian  Church.  This  hymn,  perhaps  the  most 
popular  of  them  all,  was  inspired  by  reading  a  poem 
by  Jean  Ingelow,  describing  the  effect  upon  the 
hearers  of  an  earnest  sermon  preached  by  a  humble 
minister  in  a  fishing  village.  Bishop  How  has  told 
in  his  own  words  how  the  hymn  came  to  be  written : 

“I  composed  the  hymn  early  in  1867,  after  I  had 
been  reading  a  very  beautiful  poem,  entitled, 
‘Brothers  and  a  Sermon.’  The  pathos  of  the  verses 
impressed  me  very  forcibly  at  the  time.  I  read 
them  over  and  over  again,  and  finally,  closing  the 
book,  I  scribbled  on  an  odd  scrap  of  paper  my  first 
idea  of  the  verses,  beginning,  ‘O  Jesu,  Thou  art 
standing.’  I  altered  them  a  good  deal  subsequently, 
but  I  am  fortunate  in  being  able  to  say  that  after 
the  hymn  left  my  hands  it  was  never  revised  or 
altered  in  any  way.” 

Doctor  C.  S.  Nutter,  the  distinguished  hym- 
nologist,  is  responsible  for  the  statement  that  Hol¬ 
man  Hunt’s  famous  picture,  “The  Light  of  the 
World,”  which  hangs  at  Keble  College,  Oxford,  is 
also  said  to  have  had  its  influence  upon  the  author 
in  the  writing  of  this  hymn.  The  painting  pictures 
the  figure  of  Jesus  Christ,  His  head  crowned  with 
thorns,  standing  outside  a  closed  door  upon  which 
with  one  hand  He  is  knocking  for  entrance,  while 
in  the  other  hand  He  bears  a  lighted  lantern. 

O  shame,  thrice  shame  upon  us, 

To  keep  Him  standing  there. 


75 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


68.  UtsStiS,  feabtour,  Pilot  9?e 

Edward  Hopper,  1818-1888 

Sometimes  Christian  hymns  speak  to  the  labor¬ 
ing  man  in  the  familiar  terms  of  his  daily  work. 
Charles  Wesley  visited  the  colliers  at  Newcastle- 
on-Tyne  and,  seeing  the  reflection  of  their  furnace- 
fires  against  the  midnight  sky,  wrote  for  them  the 
hymn,  ‘‘See  How  Great  a  Flame  Aspires.”  Like¬ 
wise  on  visiting  the  quarrymen  at  Portland  he  wrote 
for  them  the  hymn,  containing  the  lines, 

Strike  with  the  hammer  of  Thy  Word, 

And  break  these  hearts  of  stone. 

It  was  a  similar  impulse  that  led  Edward  Hopper, 
while  working  among  seafaring  men,  to  write  for 
them  the  hymn,  “Jesus,  Saviour,  Pilot  Me,”  which 
is  full  of  pictures  of  the  sea  and  is  suggestive  of  the 
miracle  wrought  by  Jesus  Christ  when  He  and  His 
disciples  were  on  the  sea. 

From  1870  until  his  death  in  1888,  the  author, 
a  Presbyterian  clergyman,  was  pastor  of  the  Church 
of  the  Sea  and  Land,  which  was  largely  a  mission 
to  sailors.  The  anniversary  of  the  Seamen’s  Friend 
Society  was  held  in  Broadway  Tabernacle,  New 
York  city,  on  May  10,  1880,  and  for  that  occasion 
he  was  asked  to  write  a  new  hymn.  Instead  he 
brought  this  hymn,  which  he  had  published  anony¬ 
mously  in  the  Sailors’  Magazine  in  1871,  and  read 
it  to  the  congregation.  Then  for  the  first  time  the 
secret  of  its  authorship  became  known ;  for  it  had 
already  been  printed  anonymously  in  a  number  of 
hymnals,  albeit  without  the  knowledge  of  its  author. 


76 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


69.  Conte,  'C&ou  JFount  ot  Ctteeg  ©leSSing 

Robert  Robinson,  1735-1790 

When  Robert  Robinson  was  a  very  young  boy 
his  father  died.  At  the  age  of  fourteen  Robert  went 
to  London  to  work  for  a  hair-dresser.  While  there 
he  fell  among  evil  companions.  One  Sunday  in 
1752  they  brought  some  liquor  to  an  old  woman 
who  told  fortunes,  so  as  to  enjoy  a  good  laugh  as 
they  listened  to  her  prophecies.  When  she  told 
Robinson,  however,  that  he  would  live  to  see  his 
children  and  grandchildren,  the  prophecy  sobered 
him  with  the  thought  of  the  responsibilities  of  life. 
Shortly  afterward  he  heard  George  Whitefield 
preach  on  “The  wrath  to  come,”  and  fell  under  deep 
conviction  which  continued  for  three  years. 

At  length  at  the  age  of  twenty,  hearing  the 
preaching  of  Wesley,  he  came  to  the  “Fount  of 
every  blessing”  with  the  prayer,  “Here’s  my  heart, 
O  take  and  seal  it,”  and  soon  afterward  he  entered 
the  ministry,  beginning  his  work  in  a  chapel  at  Mil- 
denhall  in  Suffolk. 

Two  years  later,  in  1757,  while  pastor  in  Nor¬ 
wich,  the  memory  of  his  conversion  brought  to  his 
soul  anew  the  joy  of  that  experience,  and  under 
the  influence  of  that  memory  he  wrote  the  lines  of 
gratefulness  to  God, 

Come,  Thou  Fount  of  every  blessing, 

Tune  my  heart  to  sing  Thy  grace. 

It  was  published  the  following  year  in  Norfolk. 

Years  later  he  became  careless  in  his  conduct  and 
while  riding  in  a  stagecoach  he  was  reproved  for  his 
frivolity  by  a  lady  who  eventually  quoted  this  very 
hymn.  Tears  came  to  his  eyes  as  he  replied: 
“Madam,  I  am  the  poor,  unhappy  man  who  composed 
it;  and  I  would  give  a  thousand  worlds,  if  I  had 
them,  to  enjoy  the  feelings  I  had  then.” 


77 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


70.  &oto  in  tfjr  SBorn  'Zfw  Serb 

James  Montgomery,  1771-1854 

One  day  in  the  month  of  February,  1832,  James 
Montgomery,  on  the  way  to  the  city  of  Bath,  was 
journeying  from  Gloucester  to  Tewkesbury  with  his 
friend,  Rowland  Hodgson.  As  they  rode  along  they 
passed  a  field  where  a  number  of  women  and  girls 
were  working  in  rows.  Stopping  to  inquire  what 
they  were  doing,  the  travelers  were  told  that  after 
digging  little  holes  in  the  ground  they  dropped  a 
few  seeds  into  each  hole.  This  process,  known  as 
“dibbling,”  had  never  been  seen  by  Montgomery 
before,  and  he  remarked:  “Give  me  broadcast  sow¬ 
ing,  scattering  the  seed  on  the  right  hand  and  on 
the  left  in  liberal  handfuls !" 

How  this  led  to  the  writing  of  this  hymn  Mont¬ 
gomery  has  told  us  in  his  own  words : 

“I  fell  immediately  into  a  musing  fit,  and  moral¬ 
ized  most  magnificently  upon  all  kinds  of  hus¬ 
bandry  (though  I  knew  little  or  nothing  of  any, 
but  so  much  the  better,  perhaps,  for  my  purpose), 
making  out  that  each  was  excellent  in  its  way,  and 
best  in  its  place.  By  degrees  my  thoughts  subsided 
into  verse,  and  I  found  them  running  lines,  like 
furrows,  along  the  field  of  my  imagination:  and  in 
the  course  of  the  next  two  stages  they  had  already 
assumed  the  form  of  the  following  stanzas,  which  I 
wrote  as  soon  as  we  reached  Bromsgrove.” 

The  hymn  was  used  that  same  year  at  Whitsun¬ 
tide  at  the  festival  of  the  Sheffield  Sunday  School 
Union,  for  which  Montgomery  wrote  a  hymn  every 
year  for  nearly  forty  years. 


78 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


71.  CBIottoug  of  ®f)tt  fepoften 

John  Newton,  1725-1807 

When  John  Newton,  an  English  preacher  of  the 
eighteenth  century,  in  his  old  age  could  no  longer 
read  his  texts,  he  was  urged  to  give  up  preaching. 
“What !”  said  he,  “shall  the  old  African  blasphemer 
stop  while  he  can  speak  ?”  And  in  these  words  he 
correctly  characterized  himself  as  he  had  been  be¬ 
fore  conversion.  Newton  could  never  forget  that 
the  grace  of  God  had  rescued  him  from  the  depths 
of  sin.  His  godly  mother  had  taught  him  the 
Scriptures.  But  she  died  when  he  was  only  seven 
years  old,  and  at  the  age  of  eleven  he  went  to  sea 
with  his  father.  His  life  as  a  sailor  was  full  of 
exciting  adventures  and  full  of  wickedness.  He 
became  a  sea  captain  and  a  slave-trader,  and  was 
enslaved  himself  for  a  time.  For  years  the  only 
good  influence  that  he  knew  came  through  his  love 
for  his  future  wife,  Mary  Catlett. 

One  frightful  night,  when  he  was  twenty-three 
years  old,  the  waterlogged  vessel  he  was  steering 
was  almost  lost.  Thus  facing  death  all  night  long, 
he  surrendered  his  life  to  Jesus  Christ  and  turned 
away  from  his  sins.  Later  he  came  under  the  influ¬ 
ence  of  Whitefield  and  the  Wesleys,  entered  the 
Christian  ministry,  and  lived  a  life  of  wide  useful¬ 
ness  in  the  service  of  the  Master.  His  influence 
lives  to-day  chiefly  in  the  hymns  that  he  wrote, 
many  of  them  being  first  published  with  those  of 
Cowper  in  the  Olney  Hymns  and  similar  collec¬ 
tions.  His  hymn,  “Glorious  Things  of  Thee  Are 
Spoken,”  which  we  sing  to  the  Austrian  national 
tune,  is  one  of  the  finest  hymns  of  praise  in  the 
English  language. 


79 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


72.  l£atk,  &ouD  3tt  t&e  Itocb 

William  Cowper,  1731-1800 

William  Cowper  is  regarded  as  the  greatest 
English  poet  who  has  contributed  any  consider¬ 
able  number  of  hymns  to  the  wealth  of  our  English 
hymnody.  His  life  was  one  of  great  suffering  and 
was  tragic  to  a  high  degree.  His  early  school  life 
was  extremely  unhappy.  Later,  while  studying  law, 
he  fell  in  love  with  Theodora  Cowper,  who  was  his 
own  cousin.  His  devotion  to  her  he  expressed  in 
several  love  poems.  But  to  Cowper’s  great  sorrow 
their  marriage  was  forbidden  by  her  father.  The 
disease  of  melancholia  fastened  itself  upon  his  mind, 
and  his  sufferings  became  most  acute. 

Though  he  recovered,  his  life  was  beclouded 
throughout  by  his  mental  depression,  and  he  occa¬ 
sionally  lapsed  into  the  most  desperate  forms  of 
melancholy. 

Despite  his  great  affliction,  he  wrote  many  of  our 
most  beloved  hymns.  His  association  with  John 
Newton  stimulated  his  interest  in  hymn-writing, 
even  though  it  may  not  have  added  much  wholesome 
cheer  to  his  darkened  soul.  The  hymn,  “Hark,  My 
Soul !  It  is  the  Lord,”  is  perhaps  the  tenderest  that 
fell  from  his  pen.  The  last  verse  expresses  simply, 
but  exquisitely,  the  anxieties  and  yearnings  of  his 
spiritual  life: 

Lord,  it  is  my  chief  complaint 

That  my  love  is  weak  and  faint ; 

Yet  I  love  Thee  and  adore: 

Oh  for  grace  to  love  Thee  more  I 


80 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


73.  &uit  of  SDp  &ouI,  Ht)m  &abiout  SDent 

John  Keble,  1792-1866 

One  of  the  literary  landmarks  of  the  early  nine¬ 
teenth  century,  in  sacred  poetry,  at  least,  was  The 
Christian  Year,  the  work  of  the  Rev.  John  Keble. 
A  high  churchman  of  the  Church  of  England,  he 
was  one  of  the  founders  of  the  Tractarian  Move¬ 
ment,  which  aimed  at  producing  a  higher  spiritual 
condition  within  the  church.  At  one  time  he  was 
professor  of  poetry  in  Oxford  University. 

From  his  Christian  Year  was  taken  our  hymn, 
“Sun  of  My  Soul,  Thou  Saviour  Dear,”  which  was 
part  of  a  long  hymn  entitled  “Evening.” 

In  Famous  Hymns  of  the  World,  Allan  Suther¬ 
land  tells  this  story  of  Keble’s  hymn:  “In  a  wild 
night  a  gallant  ship  went  to  her  doom.  A  few 
women  and  children  were  placed  in  a  boat,  without 
oars  or  sails,  and  drifted  away  at  the  mercy  of  the 
waves.  Earlier  in  the  evening,  before  the  darkness 
had  quite  settled  down,  brave  men  on  the  shore 
had  seen  the  peril  of  the  vessel  and  had  put  out  in 
the  face  of  the  tempest,  hoping  to  save  human  life, 
but  even  the  ship  could  not  be  found.  After  fruit¬ 
less  search,  they  were  about  returning  to  the  shore, 
when  out  on  the  water,  and  above  the  wail  of  the 
storm,  they  heard  a  woman’s  clear  voice  singing : 

‘Sun  of  my  soul,  Thou  Saviour  dear, 

It  is  not  night,  if  Thou  be  near.’ 

The  work  of  rescue  was  quickly  accomplished. 
But  for  the  singing,  in  all  probability,  this  boatload 
of  lives  would  have  drifted  beyond  human  help  or 
been  dashed  to  pieces  before  morning.” 


81 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


74*  Scorning  Eigfjt  3fg»  Breaking 

Samuel  Francis  Smith,  1808-1895 

This  missionary  hymn  of  optimism  and  of  chal¬ 
lenge  to  the  Christian  Church  was  written  in  the 
same  year  and  by  the  same  author  as  our  national 
hymn,  “My  Country,  ’Tis  of  Thee.”  The  author 
was  the  Rev.  Samuel  Francis  Smith,  of  whom  his 
classmate  in  Harvard  University,  Dr.  Oliver  Wen¬ 
dell  Holmes,  wrote  in  the  Class  Poem  of  1829: 

And  there’s  a  fine  youngster  of  excellent  pith, 

Fate  tried  to  conceal  him  by  naming  him  Smith. 

The  year  of  its  composition  was  1832,  when  the 
author  graduated  from  Andover  Theological  Semi¬ 
nary,  entered  the  Baptist  ministry,  and  became 
editor  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Magazine.  Little 
wonder  that  he  should  have  written  a  missionary 
hymn  in  a  year  of  such  missionary  interest  to  him¬ 
self  ! 

The  hymn  was  first  published  in  a  hymnal  that 
was  under  preparation  that  same  year,  Hastings’ 
Spiritual  Songs.  In  1843  the  author  included  it  in 
a  collection  of  hymns,  entitled  The  Psalmist ,  which 
he  and  Baron  Stow  prepared  for  American  Bap¬ 
tists — a  hymnal  that  achieved  wide  popularity. 

Though  Doctor  Smith  two  years  later  left  the 
missionary  editorship  to  enter  the  pastorate  at 
Waterville,  Maine,  he  did  not  lose  his  intense  inter¬ 
est  in  missions.  And  so  after  his  pastorate  in 
Newton,  Massachusetts,  we  find  him  editor  of  the 
publications  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Union.  Hav¬ 
ing  traveled  widely  among  the  foreign  missions, 
Doctor  Smith  was  enabled  to  write  that  his  hymn 
“has  been  a  great  favorite  at  missionary  gatherings, 
and  I  myself  heard  it  sung  in  five  or  six  different 
languages  in  Europe  and  Asia.” 


82 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


75.  ’STate  99?  Hitt,  ana  ILtt  21 1  Bf 

Frances  Ridley  Havergal,  1836-1879 

Of  this  hymn,  written  while  visiting  Areley 
House,  in  England,  1874,  the  author,  Frances  Ridley 
Havergal,  once  wrote :  “There  were  ten  persons  in 
the  house,  some  unconverted  and  long  prayed  for; 
some  converted,  but  not  rejoicing  Christians.  He 
gave  me  the  prayer :  ‘Lord,  give  me  all  in  this  house.’ 
And  He  just  DID!  Before  I  left  the  house  every¬ 
one  had  got  a  blessing.  The  last  night  of  my  visit, 
after  I  had  retired,  the  governess  asked  me  to  go 
to  the  two  daughters.  They  were  crying,  etc.  Then 
and  there  both  of  them  trusted  and  rejoiced.  It  was 
nearly  midnight.  I  was  too  happy  to  sleep,  and 
passed  most  of  the  night  in  praise  and  renewal  of 
my  own  consecration ;  and  these  little  couplets 
formed  themselves  and  chimed  in  my  heart  one 
after  another  until  they  finished  with  ‘Ever,  only, 
all  for  Thee !’  ” 

Four  years  later  she  wrote :  “The  Lord  has  shown 
me  another  little  step,  and  of  course  I  have  taken 
it  with  extreme  delight.  ‘Take  my  silver  and  my 
gold’  now  means  shipping  off  all  my  ornaments 
(including  a  jewel  cabinet,  which  is  really  fit  for 
a  countess)  to  the  Church  Missionary  House,  where 
they  will  be  accepted  and  disposed  of  for  me.  I 
retain  only  a  brooch  or  two  for  daily  wear,  which 
are  memorials  of  my  dear  parents;  also  a  locket 
with  the  only  portrait  I  have  of  my  niece,  who  is 
in  heaven.  But  these  I  redeem  so  that  the  whole 
value  goes  to  the  Church  Missionary  Society.” 


83 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


76.  2  aifjen  2  ELtaO  ®Jat  fetotet 

feitotg  of  flDIb 

Jemima  Luke,  1813-1906 

Jemima  Thompson,  who  afterward  married  the 
Rev.  Samuel  Luke,  wrote  this  hymn  in  1841.  Like 
many  hymns,  it  was  partly  inspired  by  a  tune — 
in  this  case  a  Greek  melody — the  pathos  of  which 
stirred  the  author’s  fancy  as  she  read  it  at  the 
Normal  Infant  School  at  Gray’s  Inn  Road.  She 
once  wrote:  “I  went  one  day  on  some  missionary 
business  to  the  little  town  of  Wellington,  five  miles 
from  Faunton,  in  a  stagecoach.  It  was  a  beautiful 
spring  morning;  it  was  an  hour’s  ride  and  there  was 
no  other  inside  passenger.  On  the  back  of  an  old 
envelope  I  wrote  in  pencil  the  first  two  of  the  verses 
now  so  well  known.  .  .  .  The  third  verse  was 
added  afterward  to  make  it  a  missionary  hymn.” 

One  day  a  newsboy  in  New  York  entered  a  bank 
with  a  bundle  of  papers  under  his  arm  and  asked 
two  gentlemen  sitting  before  a  fire:  “Papers,  sirs? 
Three  more  banks  down!”  “No,”  replied  one  of 
them,  “we  don’t  want  any.  But,  stop!  If  you  will 
sing  us  a  song  we  will  buy  one.”  The  boy  agreed ; 
and,  expecting  to  hear  a  jovial  song,  they  placed 
the  little  ten-year  old  on  a  table.  But  he  surprised 
them  by  singing,  “I  Think,  When  I  Read  That 
Sweet  Story  of  Old.”  Soon  they  were  both  in  tears. 
They  bought  his  papers  and  took  his  name  and  ad¬ 
dress  ;  and  the  song  of  the  Sunday  school  lad  turned 
their  thoughts  to  the  olden  story,  “When  Jesus  was 
here  among  men.” 


84 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


77.  a  99»sStg  jFocttcGG  JIG  flDut  (Bob 

Martin  Luther,  1483-1546 

This  great  war  song  of  the  Reformation,  written 
by  Martin  Luther,  has  heartened  many  a  German 
army  going  into  battle,  and  has  given  courage  to 
many  a  son  of  Germany  amid  the  hardships  of 
strange  lands.  It  was  sung  every  day  by  Luther 
and  his  friends.  Before  the  battle  of  Leipzig,  Sep¬ 
tember  1 7,  1631,  the  whole  army  of  Gustavus 
Adolphus  sang  the  hymn. 

The  story  is  still  repeated  by  the  Germans  of 
Herkimer  County,  New  York,  of  John  Christian 
Bush,  who  settled  there  with  his  family  of  six 
children  and  founded  the  village  of  Shell’s  Bush. 
On  the  afternoon  of  August  6,  1781,  a  band  of  In¬ 
dians,  led  by  Donald  McDonald,  a  Scotch  refugee, 
attacked  the  village.  Bush,  who  was  working  in 
the  field  when  they  came,  hurriedly  assembled  his 
people  within  his  block-house,  all  except  two  of 
his  children  who  were  captured  by  the  Indians. 
All  afternoon  and  far  into  the  night  they  fought 
furiously,  Bush’s  wife  doing  valiant  service  in  load¬ 
ing  the  guns,  so  that  the  men  might  never  be  empty- 
handed.  Each  time  the  Indians  attacked  the  door 
they  were  forced  back.  Once  they  broke  down  the 
door,  but  the  quick  firing  halted  them.  McDonald 
was  wounded  and  dragged  within  the  fort  by  the 
Germans,  and  the  Indians  fled.  Then  the  patriots 
sang : 

“A  mighty  fortress  is  our  God, 

A  bulwark  never  failing.” 

Again  the  Indians  attacked  and  again  were  repulsed, 
while  Bush  and  his  victorious  neighbors  sang  the 
rest  of  the  hymn  as  a  paean  of  thankfulness  to  God 
for  preserving  their  lives  in  the  midst  of  peril. 


85 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


78.  ptaige  (Bob,  JFtom  (Lfiiljom  Sill  Bltsteutetf 

jfloto 

Bishop  Thomas  Ken,  1637-1710 

The  doxology  of  praise  to  the  Holy  Trinity  was 
written  by  the  Rev.  Thomas  Ken,  whom  King 
Charles  II  once  made  a  chaplain  to  his  sister,  Mary, 
Princess  of  Orange.  Ken  was  so  courageous  in  his 
preaching  at  court  that  the  king  often  said  on  the 
way  to  chapel :  “I  must  go  and  hear  Ken  tell  me  my 
faults.” 

Bishop  McCabe  said  that  while  the  prisoners  of 
the  Union  Army  during  the  Civil  War  were  incar¬ 
cerated  in  Libby  Prison,  day  after  day  they  saw 
comrades  passing  away  and  their  numbers  increased 
by  living  recruits.  One  night,  about  ten  o’clock, 
through  the  darkness  they  heard  the  tramp  of  feet 
that  soon  stopped  before  the  prison  door,  until  ar¬ 
rangements  could  be  made  inside.  In  the  company 
was  a  young  Baptist  minister,  whose  heart  almost 
fainted  when  he  looked  on  those  cold  walls  and 
thought  of  the  suffering  inside.  Tired  and  weary, 
he  sat  down,  put  his  face  in  his  hands,  and  wept. 
Just  then  a  lone  voice  sang  out  from  an  upper 
window,  “Praise  God,  from  whom  all  blessings 
flow”;  a  dozen  joined  in  the  second  line,  more  than 
a  score  in  the  third  line,  and  the  words,  “Praise 
Father,  Son,  and  Holy  Ghost,”  were  sung  by  nearly 
all  the  prisoners.  As  the  song  died  away  on  the 
still  night,  the  young  man  arose  and  sang: 

“Prisons  would  palaces  prove, 

If  Jesus  would  dwell  with  me  there.” 


86 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


79.  Caifint  a  JFttenS  d&It  1!?abe  in  3e<Su3 

Joseph  Scriven,  1820-1886 

One  of  the  most  helpful  hymns  in  popular  use  is 
Joseph  Scriven’s  hymn  on  the  friendship  of  Jesus, 
the  comforter  and  burden-bearer.  Scriven  was  a 
native  of  Dublin,  Ireland,  born  in  1820.  He  gradu¬ 
ated  from  Trinity  College  in  his  native  city.  At  the 
age  of  twenty-five  he  emigrated  to  Canada,  and 
lived  there  until  his  death  at  Port  Hope  on  Lake 
Ontario,  October  10,  1886. 

When  a  young  man,  he  was  engaged  to  be  married 
to  a  lady  whom  he  had  known  and  loved  for  a  long 
time.  All  preparations  had  been  made  for  the  wed¬ 
ding  ceremony  and  the  date  had  been  fixed.  But 
shortly  before  the  wedding  day  arrived  his  promised 
bride  was  accidentally  drowned,  and  he  was  plunged 
into  the  deepest  sorrow.  From  this  sad  experience 
came  a  deep  sense  of  his  dependence  upon  Christ 
and  of  the  great  truth  so  helpfully  expressed  in  his 
lines :  • 

What  a  Friend  we  harve  in  Jesus, 

All  our  sins  and  griefs  to  bear ! 

Out  of  the  intense  sympathy  wrought  in  his  heart  by 
this  experience,  he  wrote  the  hymn  to  comfort  his 
mother  in  her  own  sorrow  and  sent  it  to  her  in 
Ireland.  How  it  came  to  be  first  published  is  not 
known,  as  he  had  not  intended  it  for  general  use. 
Indeed,  for  some  time  after  it  was  printed  its  au¬ 
thorship  was  unknown,  being  sometimes  incorrectly 
attributed  to  Doctor  Horatius  Bonar.  After 
Scriven’s  death,  however,  he  became  recognized  as 
the  author  of  the  hymn  that  has  blessed  so  many 
thousands  of  believers. 


87 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


80.  £D  (Bod,  9$p  potoetsS  ate  %^int 

Frederick  Watson  Hannan,  1865- 

The  Rev.  Frederick  Watson  Hannan,  now  pro¬ 
fessor  of  pastoral  theology  in  Drew  Theological 
Seminary,  Madison,  New  Jersey,  was  for  eight- 
years  the  pastor  of  the  Bushwick  Avenue  Central 
Methodist  Episcopal  Church,  Brooklyn,  New  York 
city,  which  has  a  Sunday  school  of  over  thirty-three 
hundred  enrolled  members.  Each  fall  during  Doctor 
Hannan’s  pastorate  there  it  was  the  custom  to  ob¬ 
serve  Sunday  School  Day  as  a  Rally  Day  when 
special  exercises  were  held  not  only  in  the  school, 
but  also  in  the  morning  congregational  service.  A 
sermon  was  preached  especially  to  the  teachers,  and 
a  service  of  responsive  readings  was  prepared,  in 
which  the  pastor  and  teachers  took  part.  After  the 
sermon  a  consecration  service  for  the  teachers  was 
held,  and  for  this  service  Doctor  Hannan  always 
wrote  a  hymn,  which  was  sung  by  the  teachers  as 
they  stood  around  the  altar.  The  whole  service  was 
very  impressive. 

The  hymn,  “O  God,  My  Powers  Are  Thine,”  was 
the  consecration  hymn  used  on  September  24,  1905, 
and  was  especially  written  for  that  occasion.  In 
the  current  hymnals  it  is  printed  almost  exactly  as  it 
was  in  the  weekly  church  calendar  of  that  date. 
Now  this  hymn  is  being  used  every  year  in  similar 
consecration  services  for  Sunday  school  teachers, 
for  it  breathes  in  song  the  highest  ideals  of  self¬ 
surrender  to  God,  which  is  the  first  condition  for 
effective  service  in  the  work  of  all  truly  devoted 
Sunday  school  teachers. 


88 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


81.  fllajS*  anb  2Dib  Sfj  feiabiotit  ©leebf 

Isaac  Watts,  1674-1748 

Entitled,  “Godly  Sorrow  Arising  From  the 
Sufferings  of  Christ,”  and  first  published  in  the  first 
edition  of  Hymns  and  Spiritual  Songs  in  1707,  this 
hymn  has  in  the  intervening  two  centuries  been  the 
means  of  leading  many  a  wandering  sinner  in  re¬ 
pentance  to  the  foot  of  the  cross.  The  great  evan¬ 
gelist,  E.  P.  Hammond,  when  a  boy  of  seventeen 
years,  in  Southington,  Connecticut,  was  converted 
through  the  singing  of  these  lines,  although  it  was 
not  during  any  special  evangelistic  meetings,  such  as 
he  himself  conducted  so  successfully  in  the  years 
that  followed. 

The  blind  hymn-writer,  Fanny  Crosby,  tells  of 
her  conversion  in  the  old  Thirtieth  Street  Meth¬ 
odist  Episcopal  Church,  New  York  city,  in  Novem¬ 
ber,  1850:  “After  a  prayer  was  offered,  they  be¬ 
gan  to  sing  the  grand  old  consecration  hymn,  ‘Alas ! 
and  Did  My  Saviour  Bleed  ?’  and  when  they  reached 
the  third  line  of  the  fifth  stanza,  ‘Here,  Lord,  I  give 
myself  away/  my  very  soul  flooded  with  celestial 
light.” 

Doctor  C.  S.  Robinson  in  his  Annotations  Upon 
Popular  Hymns  has  made  this  comment  on  the 
hymn : 

“In  the  third  stanza  there  has  always  been  one 
line  which  the  Christians  on  both  sides  of  the  ocean, 
and  of  every  denomination,  have  been  reluctant  to 
receive.  Doctor  Watts  wrote  it  thus :  ‘When  God, 
the  Mighty  Maker,  dy’d/  Now,  when  we  remem¬ 
ber  that  this  revered  author  has  been  violently  ac¬ 
cused  of  being  so  Unitarian  in  sentiment  that  Scot¬ 
tish  Presbyterians  cannot  sing  his  versions  of 
Psalms,  even  at  Pan-Presbyterian  councils,  it  is 
refreshing  to  hear  him  assert  such  doctrinal  extrav¬ 
agance  in  his  zeal  to  be  orthodox.” 

89 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


82.  %fje  fe>anb0  of  Hirnc  aw  StnfttitQ; 

Anne  Ross  Cousin,  1824-1906 

Because  of  his  deep  piety  and  the  triumphant 
spirit  with  which  he  bore  his  many  persecutions, 
Samuel  Rutherford  (1600-1661)  is  remembered  as 
one  of  the  Christian  martyrs  of  Scotland.  Dean 
Stanley  called  him  “the  true  saint  of  the  Covenant.” 
Based  upon  his  words,  and  especially  those  uttered 
upon  his  death-bed,  this  hymn  was  written  by  the 
wife  of  a  Presbyterian  minister  after  an  apprecia¬ 
tive  study  of  Rutherford’s  life. 

Rutherford  was  a  learned  professor  of  theology 
and  a  minister  of  the  gospel,  beginning  his  pastoral 
work  at  An  worth  in  1627.  Ten  years  later  he  wrote 
to  John  Gordon:  “My  worthy  and  dear  brother, 
misspend  not  your  short  sandglass  which  runneth 
very  fast;  seek  your  Lord  in  time.”  These  words 
form  the  theme  of  the  opening  lines  of  the  hymn. 

He  was  so  steadfast  in  beliefs  that  conflicted  with 
the  orthodoxy  of  his  time  that  in  1636  he  was 
brought  before  the  High  Commission  Court,  re¬ 
moved  from  his  church  and  banished  to  Aberdeen. 
Later  his  books  were  burned  under  his  windows  at 
Saint  Andrews,  and  finally  after  the  Restoration  he 
was  summoned  for  high  treason  before  Parliament. 
But  the  approach  of  death  intervened  and  he  wrote 
in  reply:  “I  am  summoned  before  a  higher  Judge 
and  judicatory,  .  .  .  and  ere  a  few  days  arrive  I 
shall  be  where  few  kings  and  great  folks  come.” 

In  reply  to  the  question,  “What  think  ye  now 
of  Christ?”  his  dying  words  were:  “I  shall  live 
and  adore  Him.  Glory,  glory  to  my  Creator  and 
Redeemer  forever.  Glory  shineth  on  Immanuel’s 
land.”  These  and  others  of  his  utterances  Mrs. 
Cousin  wove  into  a  poem  of  nineteen  stanzas,  from 
which  this  hymn  and  also  that  beginning,  “Oh, 
Christ,  He  is  the  fountain,”  were  taken. 


90 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


83.  M it  ^?)0U  Mlcatp,  art  'E&ou  Hangufb  i 

Saint  Stephen,  the  Sabaite,  725-794 
(Translated  by  John  Mason  Neale,  1818-1866) 

A  Greek  hymn  of  the  eighth  century,  the  original 
lines  of  this  poem  by  Saint  Stephen  the  Sabaite  so 
appealed  to  the  great  translator,  Doctor  Neale,  that 
he  wrote  of  them  that  they  “strike  me  as  being  very 
sweet.”  He  made  so  free  a  translation  from  the 
Greek,  however,  that  the  English  version  almost  de¬ 
serves  to  be  classed  as  an  original  hymn. 

Stephen’s  uncle,  Saint  John  of  Damascus,  placed 
him  in  the  monastery  at  Mar  Saba  in  the  wilder¬ 
ness  of  Judaea  near  the  Dead  Sea,  when  the  latter 
was  only  ten  years  old.  Eventually  he  became  a 
monk  of  Sabas  and  remained  there  for  fifty-nine 
years  until  his  death.  At  an  early  age  he  came 
under  the  influence  of  Cosmas,  who  guided  and 
perfected  his  literary  style,  so  that  he  became  a 
poet  and  thus  learned  to  give  noble  expression  to 
his  devout  meditations.  The  most  beautiful  of  his 
poems  is  this  hymn,  which  has  endured  for  nearly 
eleven  centuries. 

The  monastery  also  still  stands,  “clinging  to  the 
face  of  a  steep  precipice,  so  that  it  is  difficult  to 
distinguish  man’s  masonry  from  the  natural  rock.” 
It  is  visited  by  travelers  in  the  Holy  Land,  and  the 
Rev.  James  King  in  his  Anglican  Hymnology 
(1885)  gives  an  interesting  account  of  it.  The 
forty  monks  now  there  hold  seven  religious  services 
daily.  After  being  shown  “their  gayly  decorated 
chapel,  the  tomb  of  Saint  Sabas,  the  tomb  of  Saint 
John  of  Damascus,  and  a  cave  containing  thousands 
of  skulls  of  martyred  monks,”  Doctor  King  was  led 
to  the  belfry  on  the  roof,  where  he  “saw  the  bells 
which  send  forth  their  beautiful  chimes  and  glad¬ 
den  the  hearts  of  pilgrims  who,  ‘weary  and  languid,’ 
pursue  their  journey  through  the  desolate  wilder¬ 
ness.” 


91 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 

84.  tlSt  SDap  ot  WHtatf),  Hfyat  SDteatiful  SDap 

Thomas  of  Celano,  P-1255 
(Translated  by  Sir  Walter  Scott,  1771-1832) 

The  stately  solemnity  of  the  ancient  poem  on  the 
Judgment  Day,  the  greatest  of  all  the  Latin  hymns, 
first  resounded  through  the  soul  of  an  obscure 
monk,  Thomas,  born  in  the  Italian  town  of  Celano. 
He  was  a  friend  of  Saint  Francis  of  Assisi.  It  has 
been  said  of  Dante,  “He  has  seen  hell.”  Likewise, 
of  Thomas  it  has  been  said  by  Macdonald,  the 
English  hymnologist,  “He  has  seen  the  great,  white 
throne  and  Him  that  sits  upon  it.”  The  lofty  theme 
and  the  literary  perfection  with  which  the  thrilling 
lines  have  given  it  utterance  have  been  the  admira¬ 
tion  of  the  Christian  Church  throughout  many  ages. 

Numberless  translations  have  been  made,  but  few 
have  approached  in  beauty  the  condensed  translation 
which  Sir  Walter  Scott  made  and  introduced  into 
The  Lay  of  the  Last  Minstrel  at  the  climax  wherein 
he  describes  a  pilgrimage  to  Melrose  Abbey  for  the 
purpose  of  praying  for  the  repose  of  the  soul  of 
Michael  Scott. 

And  ever  in  the  office  close 
The  hymn  of  intercession  rose; 

And  far  the  echoing  aisles  prolong 
The  awful  burthen  of  the  song — 

Dies  irae,  dies  ilia. 

Mr.  Gladstone  once  said  of  it:  “I  know  of  noth¬ 
ing  more  sublime  in  the  writings  of  Sir  Walter 
Scott — certainly  I  know  nothing  so  sublime  in  any 
portion  of  the  sacred  poetry  of  modern  times.” 

Sir  Walter’s  biographer,  Lockhart,  in  describing 
the  scenes  at  the  death-bed  of  the  Scottish  bard,  tells 
of  how  frequently  he  quoted  fragments  of  the  Bible, 
or  some  petition  in  the  Litany,  or  a  Scotch  metrical 
version  of  a  psalm  or  “some  of  the  magnificent 
hymns  of  the  Romish  ritual” ;  and  he  adds,  “We 
often  heard  distinctly  the  cadence  of  the  Dies  Irae  ” 

92 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


85.  J3D  lung  ot  itingsf,  £D  Hotd  o(  IjoStjS 

Henry  Burton,  1840- 

In  The  Christian  Advocate  Doctor  Burton's 
daughter  gives  this  account  of  her  father’s  famous 
hymn : 

“In  1887  Doctor  Burton  was  one  of  three  to  be 
asked  to  write  an  ode  for  the  jubilee  of  Queen 
Victoria.  It  was  set  to  music  by  Sir  John  Stainer, 
and  sung  at  a  special  festival  of  the  National  Chil¬ 
dren’s  Home  and  Orphanage,  in  the  Royal  Albert 
Hall,  London,  by  a  choir  of  a  thousand  voices,  ac¬ 
companied  by  an  orchestra  of  seventy  instruments, 
Madame  Antoinette  Stirling  and  Mr.  John  Pobert 
taking  the  solos.  Sir  John  Stainer  afterward  wrote 
Doctor  Burton,  asking  if  he  could  not  put  it  in 
another  form  which  would  be  suitable  for  any  occa¬ 
sion,  and  he  would  adapt  the  music  to  it.  This 
Doctor  Burton  did,  and  the  hymn  was  evolved  which 
has  been  described  as  the  finest  national  anthem 
of  modern  times.” 

Doctor  John  Telford,  in  his  The  Methodist  Hymn- 
Book  Illustrated,  tells  us  that  Stainer  in  his  letter 
to  Doctor  Burton  stated  that  he  was  much  delighted 
with  the  words  and  regretted  that  they  would  cease 
to  be  “current  coin”  when  the  Jubilee  was  over; 
adding:  “If  you  like  the  music  I  wrote,  would  it  be 
possible  to  write  a  few  verses  of  a  patriotic  hymn 
to  the  tune?  I  admire  the  bold  rhythm  of  your  first 
verse  and  venture  to  suggest  that  if  that  portion  of 
the  music  were  wedded  to  another  set  of  words,  both 
might  live  a  little  longer  than  this  year.” 

The  tune,  composed  by  Stainer  for  this  hymn, 
was  “Rex  Regum.” 

Doctor  Burton,  a  Wesleyan  Methodist  clergyman 
in  West  Kirby,  England,  was  educated  in  America 
(Beloit  College).  This  and  his  other  hymns  have 
given  him  a  foremost  place  among  modern 
hymnists. 


93 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


86.  /Fait!)  ot  flDut  Jfatlietg*  Eibing  Still 

Frederick  William  Faber,  1814-1863 

The  singing  of  hymns  to  the  “Lord  and  Master 
of  us  all”  is  the  greatest  bond  between  Christians 
of  different  forms  of  faith.  Evangelical  churches 
sing  hymns  by  the  Unitarian  poets,  such  as  Sir  John 
Bowring’s  “In  the  Cross  of  Christ  I  Glory,”  and 
Sarah  Flower  Adams’s  “Nearer,  My  God,  to  Thee,” 
and  the  Roman  Catholic  hymns  of  Father  Faber, 
and  Cardinal  Newman’s  “Lead,  Kindly  Light”; 
while  Charles  Wesley’s  “Jesus,  Lover  of  My  Soul,” 
and  “Onward,  Christian  Soldiers,”  by  Sabine  Bar- 
ing-Gould,  are  sung  with  fervor  by  Romanists. 

It  is  curious  that  just  as  Faber,  once  a  priest  in 
the  Church  of  England,  in  sympathy  with  the  Ox¬ 
ford  Movement,  followed  Newman  in  1846  into  the 
Roman  Catholic  Church,  his  hymn,  “Faith  of  Our 
Fathers,”  has  traveled  in  the  opposite  direction,  and 
by  an  editorial  modification  of  its  theological  teach¬ 
ing  has  been  changed  from  an  expression  of  Roman¬ 
ist  faith  into  one  of  the  great  war-songs  of  modern 
Protestantism.  Faber  wrote,  having  distinctly  in 
mind  the  heroes  and  martyrs  of  Catholicism : 

Faith  of  our  fathers !  living  still 

In  spite  of  dungeon,  fire,  and  sword, 

How  Ireland’s  heart  beats  high  with  joy. 

His  lines,  uttering  the  Mariolatry  of  his  Church, 

Faith  of  our  fathers !  Mary’s  prayers 
Shall  win  our  country  back  to  thee, 

were  altered  in  a  Unitarian  hymnal  to 

Faith  of  our  fathers!  Good  men’s  prayers 
Shall  win  our  country  all  to  thee. 

He  states  in  his  Preface  to  Jesus  and  Mary,  in 
which  this  hymn  first  appeared,  that  his  purpose 
was  to  supply  Catholic  hymns  with  the  fervor  and 
simplicity  of  the  Olney  Hymns  and  the  Wesley 
hymns. 


94 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


87.  'CfjroiiQf)  tfjr  jMgljt  of  SDoubt  anb  Sortoto 

Bernhardt  Severin  Ingemann,  1789-1862 
(Translated  by  Sabine  Baring-Gould,  1834-) 

Receiving  their  inspiration  first  from  the  famous 
Petersen  brothers,  Olaf  and  Lars,  who  heartened 
the  reform  movement  in  Sweden  by  their  spiritual 
songs  in  the  early  sixteenth  century,  Scandinavian 
hymns  have  been  distinctly  subjective  in  character, 
and  have  expressed  the  sentiments  and  religious  ex¬ 
perience  of  the  individual  worshipers  far  more  than 
the  elements  of  faith  and  its  objective  expressions. 

An  excellent  example  of  this  has  been  the  hymn, 
“Through  the  Night  of  Doubt  and  Sorrow,”  first 
written  in  the  Danish  language  by  Professor  Inge¬ 
mann.  A  famous  poet,  and  thereby  greatly  en¬ 
deared  to  his  own  people,  he  began  his  career  as  a 
lawyer,  and  later  abandoned  law  for  literature.  He 
was  for  forty  years,  1822-1862,  Professor  of  the 
Danish  Language  and  Literature  in  the  Academy  of 
Soro,  Zealand,  Denmark.  In  1851  his  collected 
works  were  published  in  thirty-four  volumes,  in¬ 
cluding  a  series  of  historical  romances  dealing  with 
Danish  life  in  the  Middle  Ages. 

His  great  popularity,  however,  was  based  chiefly 
on  his  hymns  and  songs,  written  especially  for  chil¬ 
dren.  Once,  upon  his  birthday,  the  children  of 
Denmark,  holding  him  in  great  affection,  gathered  a 
large  fund  by  small  subscriptions  and  presented  him 
with  a  golden  horn. 

In  1825  he  published  his  High-Mass  Hymns. 
In  1842  in  the  Supplement  to  this  book  he  included 
a  hymn,  written  for  the  Second  Sunday  in  Advent, 
based  on  Romans  5.  4,  and  picturing  the  journey  of 
Israel  through  the  wilderness.  Doctor  Sabine  Bar- 
ing-GoUld  translated  it  into  English,  and  thus  was 
born  our  hymn,  “Through  the  Night  of  Doubt  and 
Sorrow.” 


95 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


88.  ®&c  Spacious  jficmament  on 

Joseph  Addison,  1672-1719 

The  Hebrew  Psalms  formed  the  oldest  hymn 
book  of  worship  to  the  living  God.  Sung  antiphon- 
ally  by  worshipers  through  thousands  of  years,  they 
have  carried  the  singers  through  noble  thought  and 
exalted  emotion  into  the  very  presence  of  Deity. 
Could  hymnology  give  to  us  the  story  of  David's 
experiences  inspiring  the  composition  of  those 
Psalms  which  fell  from  his  pen,  we  might  discover 
that  it  was  in  his  early  days  at  Bethlehem  as  a 
shepherd  boy,  watching  over  his  flocks  by  night, 
that  he  learned  to  love  the  stars  bestudding  the  clear 
oriental  sky,  and  to  understand  their  message  of 
the  infinite  wisdom  and  greatness  of  God. 

Psalm  19,  beginning  with  the  majestic  lines,  “The 
heavens  declare  the  glory  of  God;  and  the  firma¬ 
ment  sheweth  his  handy  work,"  was  Joseph  Addi¬ 
son’s  inspiration  in  writing  his  great  hymn,  “The 
Spacious  Firmament  on  High."  Like  his  “Trav¬ 
eler's  Hymn,"  “How  are  Thy  servants  blest,  O 
Lord"  ( q .  v.),  and  “When  All  Thy  Mercies,  O  My 
God,"  this  hymn  was  first  published  as  a  climax  to 
one  of  his  essays  in  The  Spectator. 

It  appeared  on  Saturday,  August  23,  1712,  in  No. 
465,  at  the  end  of  an  essay  on  faith.  After  a  quota¬ 
tion  from  Psalm  19,  the  author  introduces  the  hymn 
with  these  words :  “As  such  a  bold  and  sublime 
manner  of  Thinking  furnished  out  very  noble  Mat¬ 
ter  for  an  Ode,  the  Reader  may  see  it  wrought  into 
the  following  one." 

Dr.  Samuel  Johnson  was  very  fond  of  quoting  the 
hymn.  Hartley  Coleridge,  however,  objecting  to 
“the  spangles”  and  “the  shining  frame,"  once  said: 
“They  remind  me  of  tambour  work.  Perhaps  if  I 
had  never  read  the  Psalm,  I  might  think  the  verses 
fine."  But  nevertheless  the  hymn  still  holds  an  im¬ 
portant  place  in  Christian  worship. 

96 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


80.  IRotft  of  tfQTO,  Cleft  for  St?e 

Augustus  Montague  Toplady,  1740-1778 

The  author,  the  Rev.  Augustus  M.  Toplady,  bit¬ 
terly  opposed  the  doctrines  preached  by  the 
Wesleys,  who  lived  at  the  same  time,  but  his  sincere 
Christian  piety  produced  this  great  hymn,  that  has 
become  endeared  to  many  generations  of  Wesleyan 
followers. 

Years  ago  the  steamer  Sewanhaka  burned  at  sea. 
One  of  the  Fisk  Jubilee  singers  was  aboard.  Be¬ 
fore  jumping  into  the  sea  he  fastened  life  preserv¬ 
ers  on  himself  and  his  wife;  but  some  one  snatched 
hers  away  from  her.  In  the  water,  however,  she 
put  her  hands  on  his  shoulders  and  thus  kept  afloat 
until,  almost  exhausted,  she  said  to  her  husband, 
“I  cannot  hold  on  any  longer !”  “Try  a  little 
longer,”  begged  the  agonized  husband.  “Let  us  sing 
‘Rock  of  Ages.’  ”  And  as  the  hymn  rang  out  over 
the  waves,  others  almost  sinking  took  up  the  strains 
of  the  pleading  prayer  to  God.  The  hymn  seemed 
to  give  new  strength  to  many  in  that  desperate  hour. 
By  and  by  a  boat  was  seen  approaching,  and  as  it 
came  nearer  the  singing  was  renewed  until  with 
superhuman  efforts  they  laid  hold  upon  the  life¬ 
boats  and  were  carried  to  safety.  The  singer,  in 
telling  this  story  himself,  declared  that  he  believed 
this  hymn  had  saved  many  lives,  besides  his  own 
and  his  wife’s,  in  that  dreadful  disaster. 

Likewise,  hundreds  of  stories  might  be  told  of 
the  saving  of  souls  spiritually  through  the  helpful 
ministries  of  this,  one  of  the  greatest  hymns  ever 
penned  in  the  English  language. 


97 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


90.  flbitie  tott$  St?r<  JFagt  JfaUsS  tjt  Cbentibe 

Henry  Francis  Lyte,  1793-1847 

The  spirit  of  the  walk  of  Christ  with  the  dis¬ 
ciples  to  Emmaus  at  eventide  is  reproduced  in  the 
hymn,  “Abide  with  Me.”  This  has  been  sung  at 
the  close  of  many  a  day,  and,  indeed,  of  many  a 
Christian  life,  as  believers  have  uttered  it  as  a 
prayer  for  the  presence  of  Christ.  It  was  composed 
one  Sabbath  evening  in  1847  out  °f  a  deep  sadness 
that  had  settled  down  upon  its  author,  the  Rev. 
Henry  F.  Lyte.  He  had  conducted  his  last  com¬ 
munion  service  that  day  at  the  close  of  a  pastorate 
of  twenty-four  years  at  Brixham,  England.  A 
fatal  illness  had  already  seized  him  and  he  was 
about  to  leave  England  to  prolong  his  life,  if  pos¬ 
sible,  in  the  South.  Toward  evening  he  walked 
down  his  garden  path  to  the  seaside,  and  there 
thought  out  the  imagery  and  many  of  the  lines  of 
his  famous  hymn.  Into  this  he  has  woven  the  sense 
of  change  and  of  helplessness  that  one  must  feel  in 
the  presence  of  death,  and  also  the  trustful  depend¬ 
ence  upon  Jesus  Christ,  the  “Help  of  the  helpless,” 
which  every  true  Christian  must  feel  in  that  solemn 
hour.  Returning  to  his  home,  he  wrote  out  the 
hymn,  perfecting  its  lines  and  giving  to  the  Chris¬ 
tian  world  one  of  its  tenderest  prayer-hymns.  He 
left  at  once  for  the  south  of  France,  and  soon 
after  his  arrival  in  Nice  his  strength  failed  him,  and 
whispering  the  words,  “Peace!  Joy!”  while  he  was 
pointing  his  hand  upward,  he  died. 

Heaven’s  morning  breaks,  and  earth’s  vain  shadows  flee ; 
In  life,  in  death,  O  Lord,  abide  with  me! 

Nurse  Cavell,  martyred  in  Belgium  during  the 
World  War,  October  15,  1915,  joined  the  British 
chaplain  softly  in  this  hymn  shortly  before  she  was 
shot. 


98 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


91.  C&ttet  tot  moilt  Kilt  isms 

Samuel  Wolcott,  1813-1886 

The  influence  of  a  motto  or  slogan  when  used  as 
a  rallying  cry  in  a  campaign  can  scarcely  be  meas¬ 
ured.  Many  a  political  election  has  been  deter¬ 
mined  by  the  popularity  of  some  striking  phrase. 
In  many  a  war  an  army  has  been  inspirited  by  a 
battle  cry,  such  as,  “On  to  Richmond  !”  Church 
workers  have  recognized  the  inspiration  of  the 
“Look  up!  Lift  up!”  motto  in  Epworth  League 
work,  and  of  “The  Evangelization  of  the  World  in 
this  Generation”  in  missionary  work. 

This  hymn  was  suggested  and  partly  inspired  by 
just  such  a  motto,  which  had  been  adopted  by  the 
Young  Men’s  Christian  Association  of  Ohio.  And 
at  their  meeting  on  February  7,  1869,  this  motto 
was  woven  into  a  legend  of  evergreen  letters  over 
the  pulpit  of  the  church  where  they  met: 
“CHRIST  FOR  THE  WORLD  AND  THE 
WORLD  FOR  CHRIST.” 

There  was  a  clergyman  in  attendance  upon  that 
meeting,  a  native  of  South  Windsor,  Connecticut, 
by  the  name  of  Dr.  Samuel  Wolcott.  He  had  been 
a  missionary  to  Syria  and  also  pastor  of  several 
Congregational  churches  in  New  England  and  else¬ 
where.  He  was  nearly  fifty-six  years  old,  and 
though  he  had  not  done  much  hymn-writing  up  to 
that  time,  before  he  died  seventeen  years  later  he 
had  written  over  two  hundred  hymns.  So  impressed 
was  he  on  this  occasion  by  the  motto,  and  by  all  that 
was  said  and  done  during  the  meeting  to  reenforce 
it,  that  on  his  way  home  from  the  service,  walking 
through  the  streets,  he  composed  the  hymn,  “Christ 
for  the  World  We  Sing.” 


99 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


92.  jfottocutx  Be  Out  Mlatr&tootlj 

Henry  Alford,  1810-1871 

Dean  Henry  Alford  stood  forth  as  one  of  the 
great  ecclesiastical  scholars  of  his  generation. 
Twenty  years  of  scholarly  labor  he  devoted  to  his 
edition  of  the  Greek  New  Testament,  and  accom¬ 
plished  besides  a  great  wealth  of  literary  labors,  in¬ 
cluding  many  original  hymns  and  translations  of 
hymns.  Probably  his  most  popular  hymn  is,  “For¬ 
ward  !  be  our  watchword.”  The  great  Dean  of 
Canterbury,  shortly  before  his  death,  was  requested 
by  the  Rev.  J.  G.  Wood  to  write  a  hymn  to  be  sung 
at  the  tenth  festival  of  parochial  choirs  of  the 
Canterbury  Diocesan  Union  on  June  6,  1871.  His 
first  hymn  so  written  did  not  seem  to  Mr.  Wood  to 
be  adaptable  to  processional  use;  and  he  suggested 
that  the  Dean  go  into  the  cathedral  and  march  up 
and  down  the  aisles,  and  so  compose  the  proces¬ 
sional  hymn.  Accordingly,  the  old  Dean  went  into 
the  stately  cathedral,  and,  slowly  marching  beneath 
the  high-vaulted  roof  and  past  the  ancient  shrines 
of  Canterbury,  where  many  of  England’s  greatest 
men  are  sepulchered,  he  composed,  while  joining  his 
voice  to  his  steps,  the  hymn, 

Forward !  be  our  watchword, 

Steps  and  voices  joined. 

It  was  sung  by  the  Canterbury  choirs  at  their 
festival,  but  before  that  day  had  come  the  Dean  had 
passed  on  to  the  higher  life,  pressing 

Forward  through  the  darkness 
Forward  into  light! 


IOO 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


93.  Contt,  ^fjou  almighty  Icing 

Author  Unknown 

The  national  hymn  of  England,  “God  Save  Our 
Gracious  King,”  is  supposed  to  have  been  published 
first  in  1743  or  1744.  Within  a  couple  of  years, 
sung  to  the  melody  to  which  we  Americans  sing 
“My  Country,  ’Tis  of  Thee,”  it  attained  great  popu¬ 
larity  and  gradually,  by  virtue  of  its  widespread  use, 
became  known  as  the  English  national  hymn. 

Whenever  a  song  gains  universal  favor  many 
parodies  and  imitations  are  based  upon  it;  and  our 
hymn,  “Come,  Thou  Almighty  King,”  was  written 
shortly  afterward  in  imitation  of  “God  Save  the 
King”  in  both  meter  and  style.  Though  it  is  attrib¬ 
uted  to  Charles  Wesley  in  many  hymnals,  the  author 
is  really  unknown. 

In  the  days  of  the  American  Revolution  a  con¬ 
gregation  of  patriotic  colonists  were  worshiping  in 
their  church  on  Long  Island  when  the  service  was 
interrupted  by  the  arrival  of  a  company  of  Hessian 
troops.  The  captain  stalked  up  the  aisle  and  com¬ 
manded  the  people  to  sing  “God  Save  the  King.” 
The  organist  started  the  tune'  that  we  call  “Amer¬ 
ica”  ;  but  the  people,  true  to  the  cause  of  the  Amer¬ 
ican  colonies  and  to  their  God,  sang  this  hymn : 

“Come,  Thou  Almighty  King, 

Help  us  Thy  name  to  sing.” 

And  the  soldiers  withdrew  without  enforcing  their 
demands. 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


04.  Heabttl)  S(?fi  2D  BleSsSfb  ®&oug!)t* 

Joseph  Henry  Gilmore,  1834- 

DR.  Joseph  H.  Gilmore,  the  son  of  a  governor 
of  New  Hampshire,  began  his  career  as  pastor  of  a 
Baptist  church,  later  becoming  professor  of  Hebrew 
in  Rochester  Theological  Seminary  and  afterward 
professor  of  English  literature  in  Rochester  Uni¬ 
versity,  New  York.  In  1862,  the  year  of  his  ordina¬ 
tion,  he  was  visiting  in  Philadelphia  and  conducted 
the  Wednesday  evening  prayer  meeting  in  the  First 
Baptist  Church  of  that  city.  He  took  for  his  subject 
the  Twenty-third  Psalm,  that  most  beloved  hymn 
from  the  world’s  first  hymn  book.  After  the  meet¬ 
ing  Doctor  Gilmore  wrote  this  hymn  on  the  text, 
“He  leadeth  me  beside  the  still  waters.”  It  came  as 
a  result  of  a  conversation  in  the  home  he  was  visit¬ 
ing  that  evening  on  the  theme  of  the  prayer  meeting. 
Doctor  Gilmore  has  described  the  occasion  thus : 
“During  the  conversation,  the  blessedness  of  God’s 
leadership  so  grew  upon  me  that  I  took  out  my 
pencil,  wrote  the  hymn  just  as  it  stands  to-day, 
handed  it  to  my  wife,  and  thought  no  more  about 
it.  She  sent  it,  without  my  knowledge,  to  the 
Watchman  and  Recorder.  Three  years  later  I  went 
to  Rochester  to  preach  for  the  Second  Baptist 
Church.  On  entering  the  chapel,  I  took  up  a  hymn 
book,  thinking,  T  wonder  what  they  sing?’  The 
book  opened  at  ‘He  Leadeth  Me !’  and  that  was  the 
first  time  I  knew  my  hymn  had  found  a  place  among 
the  songs  of  the  church.” 


102 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


95.  i^atl  to  t§e  noting  &nomteli 

James  Montgomery,  1771-1854 

James  Montgomery,  born  in  Scotland,  the  son 
of  a  Moravian  clergyman,  was  an  editor  by  pro¬ 
fession.  Though  as  a  child  he  had  joined  the  Mora¬ 
vian  Church,  he  lost  his  early  piety  when  he  became 
a  young  man;  but  later  in  life  he  was  converted 
and  joined  the  Moravian  Church  again  at  the  age 
of  forty-three.  Thus  he  became  a  Christian  war¬ 
rior,  such  as  he  describes,  standing 

In  all  the  armor  of  his  God ; 

The  Spirit’s  sword  is  in  his  hand, 

His  feet  are  with  the  gospel  shod. 

He  and  Cowper  hold  the  foremost  place  among 
laymen  of  the  church  who  are  eminent  hymn- 
writers. 

His  hymn,  “Hail  to  the  Lord’s  Anointed,”  he 
wrote  in  1821,  seven  years  after  he  joined  the 
church  a  second  time.  It  is  a  metrical  version  of  the 
Seventy-second  Psalm.  It  was  written  as  a  Christ¬ 
mas  hymn  and  was  first  sung  on  Christmas  Day, 
1821,  at  a  great  convocation  of  Moravians  in  their 
settlement  at  Fulneck.  At  a  Wesleyan  missionary 
meeting,  held  in  Liverpool  on  April  14  of  the  fol¬ 
lowing  year,  1822,  when  Doctor  Adam  Clarke  pre¬ 
sided,  Montgomery  made  an  address  and  closed  it 
by  the  recital  of  this  hymn  with  all  of  its  verses, 
some  of  which  are  omitted  in  this  hymnal.  Doctor 
Clarke  later  used  it  in  his  famous  Commentary  in 
connection  with  his  discussion  of  the  Seventy-'second 
Psalm. 


103 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


96.  (Be  ploto  tfje  JfielfiS,  anti  Scatter 

Matthias  Claudius,  1740-1815 
(Translated  by  Jane  Montgomery  Campbell,  1817-1878) 

From  the  German  have  been  translated  many  of 
our  richest  hymns.  Most  of  John  Wesley’s  hymns 
in  use  now  are  those  which  he  has  translated  from 
German  hymns,  and  chiefly  those  expressing  the 
mystical  faith  of  the  Moravians.  This  harvest 
hymn  of  thanksgiving,  “We  plow  the  fields,  and 
scatter,”  was  translated  from  the  German  hymn 
of  Matthias  Claudius  by  Miss  Jane  Montgomery 
Campbell  in  1861.  She  was  the  daughter  of  an 
English  clergyman,  and  he  was  the  son  of  a  German 
clergyman.  Claudius  lived  to  be  seventy-four  years 
old  and  died  in  1815,  two  years  before  Miss  Camp¬ 
bell  was  born. 

This  hymn  was  freely  translated  from  a  portion 
of  a  longer  poem  of  seventeen  verses  with  chorus. 
It  appeared  first  in  a  sketch  called  Paul  Erdmann’s 
Feast.  It  was  represented  as  the  song  that  was  sung 
at  Paul’s  home  by  the  peasants  after  the  harvest 
was  over. 

As  may  be  inferred  from  this  hymn,  there  was  a 
wholesome  cheer  in  the  author’s  writings  as  well  as 
in  his  life,  and  this  in  spite  of  the  fact  that  he  was 
not  unaccustomed  to  hardships.  Menzel  has  said 
of  him  that  his  genius  never  reached  its  fullest  de¬ 
velopment  because  he  was  constantly  harassed  by 
his  poverty.  But  he  was  a  man  of  great  piety,  and 
his  influence  for  good  was  very  considerable.  He 
chose  to  dwell  upon  the  blessings  with  which  God 
enriches  us,  and  from  his  very  heart  he  sang: 

We  thank  Thee,  then,  O  Father, 

For  all  things  bright  and  good. 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


97*  C5ob  ot  &btal)am  ptatge 

Thomas  Olivers,  1725-1799 

Thomas  Olivers,  when  a  boy  orphaned  and 
friendless,  fell  into  the  company  of  bad  companions 
and  won  the  reputation  of  being  “the  worst  boy  in 
that  country  in  thirty  years.”  As  a  man,  he  learned 
the  trade  of  a  shoemaker,  but  continued  in  his 
wicked  ways,  until  at  last  the  preaching  of  White- 
field  got  hold  upon  his  soul,  stirring  him  with  a 
message  from  the  text,  “Is  not  this  a  brand  plucked 
out  of  the  fire?” 

Olivers  became  converted,  and  immediately  set 
about  helping  the  Wesleys  in  the  work  of  plucking 
other  brands  from  the  fire.  He  assisted  in  setting 
up  type  for  the  Wesleyan  publications,  he  became 
an  efficient  preacher  and,  as  is  evidenced  by  this 
wonderful  hymn,  a  hymn-writer  of  a  high  order. 

One  night  in  London,  he  was  attracted  to  a  serv¬ 
ice  in  a  Jewish  synagogue,  where  he  heard  a  great 
singer,  Leoni,  sing  an  ancient  Hebrew  melody  in 
the  solemn,  plaintive  mode  and  he  became  impressed 
with  a  desire  to  write  a  hymn  to  that  tune.  The  re¬ 
sult  was  our  hymn,  “The  God  of  Abraham  Praise,” 
which  is  in  a  sense  a  paraphrase  of  the  ancient 
Hebrew  Yigdal,  or  doxology,  though  Olivers  gave 
to  it  a  distinctly  Christian  flavor. 

The  story  is  told  of  a  young  Jewess  who  had 
been  baptized  into  the  Christian  faith,  and  in  con¬ 
sequence  was  abandoned  by  her  family.  She  fled  to 
the  home  of  the  minister,  poured  out  her  heart  to 
him,  and  as  if  to  show  that,  after  all,  her  joy  in 
her  new-found  Saviour  was  greater  than  all  her 
loss  of  home  and  family,  she  sang,  “The  God  of 
Abraham  Praise.” 


105 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


08.  Jl2eatet,  (Bob,  to  ®l>ee 

Sarah  Flower  Adams,  1805-1848 

Benjamin  Flower  in  1798  published  an  article 
in  the  Cambridge  Intelligencer,  attacking  the  atti¬ 
tude  of  Bishop  Watson  toward  the  French  Revolu¬ 
tion,  and  so  offended  the  reverend  gentleman  that 
Flower  was  cast  into  prison.  Among  those  who 
visited  him  in  prison  to  sympathize  with  him  was 
Miss  Eliza  Gould,  who  met  him  there  for  the  first 
time.  After  his  release  they  were  married.  Their 
youngest  child,  Sarah,  became  Mrs.  Sarah  Flower 
Adams ;  and  by  that  name  she  is  known  as  the 
author  of  “Nearer,  My  God,  to  Thee.” 

In  1841,  deeply  impressed  by  the  story  in  Genesis 
of  Jacob’s  vision  at  Bethel  of  the  ladder  to  heaven 
with  angels  ascending  and  descending  thereon,  she 
wrote  her  hymn  that  has  since  become  so  univer¬ 
sally  popular  and  helpful. 

The  Rev.  Doctor  Millard  F.  Troxell  tells  of  the 
experience  of  a  group  of  tourists,  cloud-bound  on 
the  summit  of  Pike’s  Peak,  huddled  about  the  fire¬ 
place  in  the  block-house:  “It  was  suggested  that  we 
sing  some  popular  melody.  A  voice  began  one  of 
the  many  sentimental  songs  of  the  day;  but  few 
knew  enough  of  it  to  join  in,  so  the  singer  was  left 
to  finish  it  alone.  Then  some  one  began  to  sing 
softly,  ‘Nearer,  My  God,  to  Thee/  and  before  the 
second  line  was  ended  it  seemed  as  if  all  who  had 
been  strangers  now  felt  at  home ;  and,  for  the  time 
being,  the  place  seemed  like  a  very  Bethel.”  Before 
long  the  mists  rolled  away  and  “before  us  stretched 
the  most  wonderful  of  views.” 

This  hymn  is  remembered  as  the  dying  prayer  of 
our  martyred  President  McKinley. 


106 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


09*  tyazki  t&e  &inQ 

Charles  Wesley,  1707-1788 

For  years  the  only  hymn  of  Charles  Wesley’s 
admitted  to  the  Book  of  Common  Prayer  of  the 
Church  of  England  was  this  Christmas  hymn.  This 
was  true  in  spite  of  the  fact  that,  as  an  ordained 
clergyman  of  that  denomination,  he  was  the  great¬ 
est  hymn-writer  ever  produced  by  the  Church  of 
England.  But,  of  course,  Charles  Wesley  and  his 
brother,  John  Wesley,  belong  to  Methodism  as  well. 
Until  death  came  to  them  they  remained  clergymen 
of  the  Established  Church.  The  great  religious 
movement  founded  by  John  Wesley,  and  inspired 
by  the  hymns  of  Charles  Wesley,  and  known  there¬ 
fore  as  the  Wesleyan  Revival,  was  intended  to 
quicken  the  spiritual  work  of  their  church.  But, 
besides  doing  this,  it  developed  into  organized  Meth  - 
odism  as  a  separate  church,  and  as  such  has  proved 
to  be  a  tremendous  religious  force  in  the  world. 

This  Christmas  hymn  was  first  written  in  1739 
and  first  published  the  same  year  in  Hymns  and 
Sacred  Poems  by  John  and  Charles  Wesley,  their 
first  joint  hymnal;  and  it  began  with  the  lines: 

Hark !  how  all  the  welkin  rings, 

Glory  to  the  King  of  kings. 

Many  revisions  have  been  made  in  the  original 
hymn,  some  of  which  are  contained  in  our  most 
modern  hymnals.  This  hymn  has  been  more  widely 
published  in  hymn  books  than  any  other  by  Charles 
Wesley,  and  is  one  of  the  most  beloved  hymns  in 
the  English  language.  It  gives  such  clear  utter¬ 
ance  in  poetic  form  to  the  doctrines  of  the  incarna¬ 
tion  that  the  full  meaning  of  the  birth  of  Christ 
fairly  sings  its  way  into  the  hearts  and  memories 
of  those  who  worship. 


107 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


100.  atoaftt,  &ouI,  anb  CMitl)  t&e  femn 

Bishop  Thomas  Ken,  1637-1711 

When  Thomas  Ken  was  a  child  both  of  his  pa¬ 
rents  died  and  Izaac  Walton,  husband  of  his  older 
sister,  Ann,  became  his  guardian.  At  the  age  of 
fourteen  he  became  a  scholar  in  Winchester  College, 
and  the  affection  which  he  formed  for  Winchester 
in  those  early  school  days  exerted  a  great  influence 
in  his  subsequent  life  and  in  the  writing  of  this 
greatest  of  morning  hymns.  Five  years  after  he 
had  won  the  degree  of  B.  A.  from  New  College, 
Oxford,  he  was  made  a  Fellow  of  Winchester  and 
later  chaplain  to  Morley,  Bishop  of  Winchester. 

This  renewal  of  his  association  with  the  scenes 
of  his  school  life  at  Winchester  and  his  deep  con¬ 
cern  for  the  spiritual  life  of  the  boys  then  in  school 
led  him  to  write  three  hymns  especially  for  them, 
for  “Morning/’  “Midnight,”  and  “Evening,”  each 
one  concluding  with  what  we  call  the  Long-Meter 
Doxology  ( q .  v.,  p.  86).  The  greatest  of  these  was 
the  Morning  Hymn. 

Ken  united  fearlessness  and  gentleness  in  his 
saintly  character.  Macaulay  said  that  he  came  “as 
near  as  human  infirmity  permits  to  the  ideal  per¬ 
fection  of  Christian  virtue.”  When  chaplain  to 
Princess  Mary  at  The  Hague  he  was  dismissed  for 
condemning  the  immorality  at  Court;  and  for  simi¬ 
lar  courage  on  another  occasion  Charles  II  made 
him  Bishop  of  Bath  and  Wells.  James  imprisoned 
him  in  the  Tower  of  London  and  William  III  re¬ 
moved  him  from  his  see  for  not  complying  against 
his  conscience  with  the  royal  will. 

When  at  last  in  17 11  he  died,  he  was  buried  ac¬ 
cording  to  his  wish  at  Frome  “under  the  east  win¬ 
dow  of  the  chancel,  just  at  sunrising,”  as  his  sor¬ 
rowing  friends  sang  his  own  morning  hymn, 
“Awake,  My  Soul,  and  With  the  Sun/’ 


ONE  HUNDRED  AND  ONE  HYMN  STORIES 


tOL  C5oH  Be  mm  Sutt  mil  mt  ®$ttt  again 

Jeremiah  Eames  Rankin,  1828-1904 

Doctor  Rankin,  a  native  of  New  Hampshire 
and  a  graduate  of  Middlebury  College,  for  many 
years  held  the  pastorates  successively  of  several 
prominent  Congregational  churches  in  New  Eng¬ 
land  and  Washington,  D.  C.,  until  1889,  when  he 
became  president  of  Howard  University. 

While  pastor  of  a  Congregational  church  in 
Washington,  D.  C.,  he  became  so  impressed  with  the 
etymology  of  the  farewell  greeting,  “good-by,” 
which  really  means  “God  be  with  you,”  that  he 
determined  that  a  hymn  should  be  wrought  out  of 
this  beautiful  idea.  So  he  came  to  write  “God  be 
with  you  till  we  meet  again.” 

When  he  had  written  the  first  stanza  he  sent  it  to 
two  different  composers,  one  quite  famous,  the 
other  little  known,  each  of  whom  wrote  a  tune  for 
it.  He  chose  the  tune  of  the  latter,  W.  G.  Tomer, 
who  was  then  teaching  school  in  Washington. 
Doctor  Rankin  submitted  it  to  his  organist,  J.  W. 
Bishoff,  a  musical  editor,  and  Bishoff  approved  of 
it,  making  certain  changes  in  it.  In  the  words  of 
the  author:  “It  was  sung  for  the  first  time  one 
evening  in  the  First  Congregational  Church,  in 
Washington,  of  which  I  was  then  the  pastor  and  Mr. 
Bishoff  the  organist.  I  attributed  its  popularity  in 
no  little  part  to  the  music  to  which  it  is  set.  It  was 
a  wedding  of  words  and  music.” 

God  himself  alone  knows  how  many,  many  times 
this  hymn  has  been  sung  in  parting  by  friends  who 
have  never  again  met  upon  this  earth.  But  no  hap¬ 
pier  farewell  can  be  uttered  by  Christians  than  the 
simple  wish,  “God  be  with  you  till  we  meet  again.” 


109 


INDEX 


PAGE 

A  Mighty  Fortress  Is  Our  God. . . .  85 

Abide  with  Me!  Fast  Falls  the  Eventide..... .  98 

Alas  !  and  Did  My  Saviour  Bleed  ? .  89 

All  Glory,  Laud,  and  Honor .  39 

All  Hail  the  Power  of  Jesus’  Name.. . .  41 

“Almost  Persuaded,”  Now  to  Believe .  19 

Another  Year  is  Dawning! . . .  . . .  17 

Art  Thou  Weary,  Art  Thou  Languid? . . . .  91 

Awake,  My  Soul,  and  With  the  Sun . . . .  108 

Be  Not  Dismayed  Whate’er  Betide .  22 

Behold  the  Saviour  of  Mankind . .  54 

Blest  Be  the  Tie  That  Binds . .  21 

Break  Thou  the  Bread  of  Life .  71 

Christ  for  the  World  We  Sing.  . . . . .  99 

Christians,  Awake,  Salute  the  Happy  Morning .  69  • 

Come,  O  Thou  All-Victorious  Lord . .  27 

Come,  Thou  Almighty  King . . .  101 

Come,  Thou  Fount  of  Every  Blessing . . . .  77 

Come  Unto  Me,  Ye  Weary .  50 

Depth  of  Mercy!  Can  There  Be . . .  15 

Faith  of  Our  Fathers!  Living  Still . 94 

Fling  Out  the  Banner!  Let  It  Float .  24 

Flung  to  the  Heedless  Winds . 53 

Forward!  Be  Our  Watchword . 100 

From  Every  Stormy  Wind  That  Blows . .  31 

From  Greenland’s  Icy  Mountains. . .  43 

Gentle  Jesus,  Meek  and  Mild . 62 

Glorious  Things  of  Thee  Are  Spoken .  79 

Glory  Be  to  the  Father . . .  25 

God  Be  With  You  Till  We  Meet  Again..... .  109 

God  of  Our  Fathers,  Known  of  Old .  34 

Golden  Harps  Are  Sounding . . . .  46 

Guide  Me,  O  Thou  Great  Jehovah .  47 

Hail  to  the  Lord’s  Anointed... .  103 

Hark,  My  Soul!  It  Is  the  Lord . . .  80 

Hark!  the  Herald  Angels  Sing .  107 

Hark,  the  Voice  of  Jesus  Calling .  11 

,  He  Leadeth  Me!  O  Blessed  Thought .  102 

How  Are  Thy  Servants  Blest,  O  Lord .  14 

I  Love  to  Steal  Awhile  Away . . .  12 

I  Think,  When  I  Read  That  Sweet  Story  of  Old .  84 

I  Was  a  Wandering  Sheep . . .  26 

I’ll  Praise  My  Maker,  While  I’ve  Breath .  70 

I’m  But  a  Stranger  Here. . . .  30 

In  the  Cross  of  Christ  I  Glory . . .  63 

Jerusalem  the  Golden . . . ., .  67 

Jesus,  Lover  of  My  Soul .  37 

Jesus,  Saviour,  Pilot  Me . . .  76 


1 1 1 


INDEX 


PACK 

Jesus  Shall  Reign  Where’er  the  Sun .  60 

Jesus,  Thy  Blood  and  Righteousness .  57 

Jesus,  Where’er  Thy  People  Meet .  36 

Just  as  I  Am,  Without  One  Plea .  18 

Lead,  Kindly  Light,  Amid  th’  Encircling  Gloom .  61 

Lord,  I  Hear  of  Showers  of  Blessing . 74 

Mine  Eyes  Have  Seen  the  Glory  of  the  Coming  of  the 

Lord  . . .  58 

My  Country,  ’Tis  of  Thee . .  65 

My  Faith  Looks  Up  to  Thee .  7 

My  Lord,  How  Full  of  Sweet  Content..... . .  35 

Nearer,  My  God,  to  Thee .  106 

Now  Thank  We  All  Our  God .  45 

O  Beautiful  for  Spacious  Skies. . . .  2 3 

O  for  a  Thousand  Tongues  to  Sing .  68 

O  God,  My  Powers  Are  Thine .  88 

O  Jesus,  Thou  Art  Standing . . . . .  75 

O  King  of  Kings,  O  Lord  of  Hosts .  93 

O  Little  Town  of  Bethlehem .  16 

O  Love  That  Wilt  Not  Let  Me  Go... . .  44 

O  Say,  Can  You  See  by  the  Dawn’s  Early  Light .  66 

Oft  in  Danger,  Oft  in  Woe .  64 

Onward,  Christian  Soldiers . 55 

Our  Thought  of  Thee  Is  Glad  With  Hope.. .  32 

Peace,  Perfect  Peace .  8 

Praise  God,  From  Whom  All  Blessings  Flow . .  86 

Praise  to  the  Holiest  in  the  Height .  13 

Rock  of  Ages,  Cleft  for  Me...... .  97 

Saviour,  Breathe  an  Evening  Blessing .  28 

Servant  of  God,  Well  Done!..... .  33 

Shepherd  .of  Tender  Youth . 52 

Sow  in  the  Morn  Thy  Seed .  78 

Stand  Up,  Stand  Up  for  Jesus  ! . .  42 

Strong  Son  of  God,  Immortal  Love .  73 

Sun  of  My  Soul,  Thou  Saviour  Dear .  81 

Sweet  the  Moments,  Rich  in  Blessing . .  10 

Take  My  Life,  and  Let  It  Be...... .  83 

Tell  Me  the  Old,  Old  Story .  56 

The  Day  of  Resurrection . . .  40 

The  Day  of  Wrath,  That  Dreadful  Day . .  92 

The  God  .of  Abraham  Praise .  105 

The  Morning  Light  Is  Breaking .  82 

The  Sands  of  Time  Are  Sinking. . . . .  90 

The  Spacious  Firmament  on  High .  96 

The  Whole  World  Was  Lost  in  the  Darkness  of  Sin..  20 

There  Is  a  Land  of  Pure  Delight .  72 

There’s  a  Friend  for  Little  Children . . .  29 

Through  the  Night  of  Doubt  and  Sorrow . ......  95 

Thy  Life  Was  Given  for  Me .  48 

We  Plow  the  Fields,  and  Scatter . 104 

Welcome,  Happy  Morning !  Age  to  Age  Shall  Say...  51 

What  a  Friend  We  Have  in  Jesus . 87 

When  I  Survey  the  Wondrous  Cross... .  38 

Where  Cross  the  Crowded  Ways  of  Life .  9 


1 12 


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